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

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
One of the largest toffee makers in the world, Birmingham Gazette, 13 May 1930
'Messrs Harry Vincent's Model Factory and Garden Village.', The Retail Confectioner, January 1927, 13-17

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