My Intellectual Family

A Field Trip
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Last week it was a workshop on Richard the Third. Earlier this week it was a tour of the medieval ecclesiastical architecture of Oxford. What now, you ask?

Well, first I made Grace wear one of her new tops. Cute eh?Then we headed up the motorway for an hour to the large, bustling city of Birmingham for a fascinating tour of
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CADBURY WORLD

The sun shining as the kids arrive at Cadbury World.
Here is part of the factory Mr Cadbury built. This whole area of Birmingham is called Bournville and was built by Cadburys who were model employers. They were, like Fry and Rowntree, Quakers. Quakers around the C17th and early C18th were (as with all the non-conformist denominations) barred from public office so they set out to excel at business. They built wonderful homes for their employees, as well as leisure facilities and parks around the factory.

And of course, Cadbury World houses the largest Cadbury shop in the world.

This is not the reason we came here.

The reason was, of course, to learn about the history of chocolate making, the development of the Cadbury business (which also owns Schwepps, Dr Pepper etc)and the economic issues of the countries which export cocoa today.

Here is Jack going round the exhibition. He's learning that chocolate was first invented by a Mayan woman named Liz. There she is in the background of this photo.

Yes, yes, all very fascinating, but where are the free samples?

Ah, here are some.


After the history and the tour of the factory, there was time to play. Our group mostly consisted of teenagers, but they made good use of the playpark anyhow.

And into the chocolate tasting rooms. We reluctantly taste quite a lot of melted chocolate before finally giving our approval.

Guess which of our home-ed trips this week the kids will remember in 5 years time?