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Page 16
[Illustration--Black and White Plate: Bournville Village: Linden Road.]
In order to encourage thrift (at the same time insuring privacy), a
Savings Fund on a novel system has been working successfully for
several years at Bournville. The fund was opened in Jubilee year by
gifts of �1 to each employee who had been three years in the service
of the firm, and 10s. to those employed for a shorter time. Deposits
are received, and amounts withdrawn in the usual way during the year,
through collectors in each department, the depositors' cards being
called in quarterly for audit. At the end of each financial year, in
May, interest at the rate of four per cent. is added to the amount
standing to the credit of each depositor, and the whole amount paid
over to the Post Office Savings Bank. At this time also, Post Office
officials attend at the works, and enter the amounts to the credit of
each depositor, issuing new Post Office Savings books where necessary.
This system secures absolute privacy for the permanent savings, and
places the fund upon a secure basis. As some evidence that the scheme
is appreciated, it may be stated that the total balance transferred to
the Post Office Savings Bank has averaged over �3,200 per annum.
While in the district of Bournville, the opportunity must not be lost
of becoming more closely acquainted with the village around the works.
Away beyond the factory stretches an estate of nearly 500 acres, set
apart for the purpose of "alleviating the evils which arise from the
insanitary and insufficient accommodation supplied to large numbers of
the working classes, and of securing to workers in factories some of
the advantages of outdoor village life, with opportunities for the
natural and healthful occupation of cultivating the soil." As yet only
some 450 houses have been erected, pretty, picturesque cottages all of
them, for the most part semi-detached, each on its sixth of an acre,
more or less, housing in all a population of about 2,000.
[Illustration--Black and White Plate: Fishing Pool, Bournville.]
It was compassion for the ill-housed work-people of Birmingham that
led Mr. George Cadbury, the founder of the village, to undertake so
splendid a task, and having accomplished it, he crowned it by making a
gift of the whole to the nation, placing its administration in the
hands of a Trust. In doing so he laid down ideal stipulations for its
development, and for the regulation of the villages which may in the
future be built out of the income of the Trust. The principal of these
are that factories or workshops shall never occupy more than one
fifteenth of the area; that no house shall occupy more than one-fourth
of the ground allotted to it; that in addition to wide roads and the
ample gardens thus secured, one-tenth of the area shall be reserved
for public open spaces for ever, parts of which are to be used as
children's playgrounds. At present no intoxicants are sold or prepared
on the estate, and if ever the trustees should see fit to permit this,
it is to be as a co-operative undertaking, the profits of which shall
"be devoted to securing for the village community recreation and
counter-attraction to the liquor trade as ordinarily conducted."
Such a scheme affords a model for public bodies tackling the housing
problem in earnest, and is fraught with great hopes for the future.
The annual income, nearly �6,000, is to be applied first to the
development of this estate, and subsequently to the purchase of
estates near Birmingham or other large towns, and the establishment of
new villages thereon. A most important feature is, that although the
rents are calculated to yield a fair return on the cost, including a
proportion of development expenses, they are so low that a five-roomed
cottage with bath and every convenience can be had for the rent of a
two-roomed hovel in the slums. About two-fifths of the householders
find employment in the cocoa works, the rest in the adjoining villages
or in Birmingham.
[Illustration--Black and White Plate: Almshouse Quadrangle, Bournville.]
The gardens are a special feature, and before the houses are let, they
are laid out by the Trust, and planted with fruit trees. All are well
worked, and an average yield in vegetables and fruit of nearly two
shillings a week has been found possible, equivalent to something like
�60 an acre--more than twelve times as much food as would be produced
if under pasturage. Two professional gardeners, with several men under
them, are employed to look after the gardening department, and they
are always ready to give any information or advice required by the
tenants, so that the cottage gardens may be cultivated to the utmost
profit. At present the public buildings consist of a village inn and
baths; a school is shortly to be erected. Building is being steadily
proceeded with, and although the development of the estate may be
somewhat slow at first, it will advance with growing rapidity as the
revenue increases. No wonder that there is an omnipresent air of
comfort and prosperity, or that the death-rate is only about eight per
thousand, in comparison with nineteen in the neighbouring city.
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