Kingswinford Ladies Social Circle

The ladies met on October 6 at The Royal British Legion ,Kingswinford.

Chairman, Sheila Evans welcomed everyone and accepted apologies.

Pam Ingman, secretary, read the minutes from the September meeting and all business matters were approved and signed.

Sheila announced the Christmas luncheon would be at The Bell, Kingswinford, on December 8 and the Christmas party on December 1, both monies to be collected at the November meeting.

The trip to Trentham will be on November 10.

The speaker was Alan Thornton with a talk and film entitled “The Bourneville Story”.

Having seen the terrible conditions in which the people of Birmingham lived, Richard and

George Cadbury opened a chocolate factory at Bourneville, in 1879 in a rural area outside the city.

Their maxim was “If people play in a garden why not work in a garden.” The Cadburys were Quakers

and believed in equality for all. They were extremely visionary, introducing ideas unheard of in

Victorian England, including education for adults, leisure facilities, houses, health instruction, meals

and the 5 and a half hour day. They bought acres of land which cannot be built on to this day.

In 1908 the Cadbury family were instrumental in introducing Old Age Pensions.

The film showed us how the factory operated in 1951 employing hundreds of workers. Now it is nearly all automated.

Iris Hemfrey gave the vote of thanks and 2 ladies won raffle prizes.

The next meeting will be on November 3 at 7.45pm, all visitors extremely welcome.