Former Blue Bird Toffee Factory: Boundary Walls, Railings and Gates

Blue Bird Park, Bromsgrove Road, Hunnington, Worcestershire, B62 0JW

Listed on the National Heritage List for England. Search over 400,000 listed places

Overview

Boundary walls, railings and gates to the former Blue Bird Toffee Factory, of 1920s date. Read the official list entry to find out more.

Heritage Category:: Listed Building
Grade:: II
List Entry Number:: 1466996
Date first listed:: 18-Oct-2019
List Entry Name:: Former Blue Bird Toffee Factory: Boundary Walls, Railings and Gates
Statutory Address:: Blue Bird Park, Bromsgrove Road, Hunnington, Worcestershire, B62 0JW

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Official list entry

Heritage Category:: Listed Building
Grade:: II
List Entry Number:: 1466996
Date first listed:: 18-Oct-2019
List Entry Name:: Former Blue Bird Toffee Factory: Boundary Walls, Railings and Gates
Location Description:
Statutory Address 1:: Blue Bird Park, Bromsgrove Road, Hunnington, Worcestershire, B62 0JW

This List entry helps identify the building designated at this address for its special architectural or historic interest.

Unless the List entry states otherwise, it includes both the structure itself and any object or structure fixed to it (whether inside or outside) as well as any object or structure within the curtilage of the building.

For these purposes, to be included within the curtilage of the building, the object or structure must have formed part of the land since before 1st July 1948.

Understanding list entries

Corrections and minor amendments

This List entry helps identify the building designated at this address for its special architectural or historic interest.

For these purposes, to be included within the curtilage of the building, the object or structure must have formed part of the land since before 1st July 1948.

Understanding list entries

Corrections and minor amendments

Location

Statutory Address:: Blue Bird Park, Bromsgrove Road, Hunnington, Worcestershire, B62 0JW

The building or site itself may lie within the boundary of more than one authority.

County:: Worcestershire
District:: Bromsgrove (District Authority)
Parish:: Hunnington
National Grid Reference:: SO9657581389

Summary

Boundary walls, railings and gates to the former Blue Bird Toffee Factory, of 1920s date.

Reasons for Designation

The boundary walls, railings and gates to the former Blue Bird Toffee Factory (Harry Vincent Limited), Bromsgrove Road, Hunnington, Worcestershire, are listed at Grade II for the following principal reasons:

Architectural Interest: * the walls, railings and gates are constructed using good quality materials to a design redolent of their interwar date as a factory boundary treatment; * they survive well in their original form.

Historic Interest : * Hunnington was developed in the spirit of the period: sited in a clean, rural location with good modern transport links and with improved standards of welfare and well-being; * the buildings are regionally significant as key elements of a continuation of model village development, begun nearby at Bournville in the late C19.

Group Value: * the buildings form a legible grouping of the administrative and social focal points of a notable interwar factory at the centre of a new model village.

History

The factory was designed and built in 1925-7 for Harry Vincent Limited of Birmingham, manufacturers of Blue Bird toffee. The factory scheme was by S N Cooke F.R.I.B.A., of Birmingham, and included a model village (24 of the planned 100 houses were built) village shop with post office, cricket pavilion and other leisure buildings. The modern and hygienic factory design was noted in the Birmingham Gazette in May 1920, as part of an article tracing the swift rise to prominence of manufacturer Harry Vincent. It also remarks on the generous facilities provided for the workers and villagers.

The factory is shown on the Ordnance Survey Map of Worcestershire of 1938 (Epoch 4). At the end of the C20 the factory ceased operation and parts of the site have served other uses since that time. In 2019 the buildings were subject to proposals for redevelopment.

Details

Boundary walls, railings and gates to the former Blue Bird Toffee factory, of 1920s date.

DESCRIPTION: built along the edge of Bromsgrove Road, the structure comprises low red brick boundary walls and piers with ashlar caps, iron gates and railings. The north and south vehicular entrances carry the Blue Bird insignia to each gate. The centre gates are set within a recessed pedestrian entrance that visually frames the main entrance to the Administration Building.

Sources

Books and journals
Pevsner, N, Brooks, A, The Buildings of England: Worcestershire, (2007), 581
Websites
Romsley & Hunnington History Society: An Industrial Romance, The Midlander, February 1927, accessed 10/07/2019 from https://www.rhhs.org.uk/local-history/bluebird.html
Other
'Messrs Harry Vincent's Model Factory and Garden Village.', The Retail Confectioner, January 1927, 13-17
One of the largest toffee makers in the world, Birmingham Gazette, 13 May 1930

Legal

This building is listed under the Planning (Listed Buildings and Conservation Areas) Act 1990 as amended for its special architectural or historic interest.