Fry’s chocolate works in Bristol suffered a more extreme fate than its Quaker rivals. The business transferred to Somerdale in the 1930s. Union Street was hit in a bombing raid in the Second World War and Fry’s great citadel was severely damaged. Today the Fry business, which once held proud claim to being the largest chocolate company in the world, has been reduced to boxes of archives at Bournville, Somerdale, and the Bristol Records Office.
And what of the Quaker movement that inspired this great chocolate enterprise and proved such an astonishing force in the early industrial age? I went in search of their headquarters in Euston in central London. Leaving the vast, anonymous station, it seemed improbable that anything to do with the Quakers could be found here in the Euston Road with its thundering traffic and heavy fumes. I was looking for Friends House, built in the 1920s with contributions from the Cadburys and other Quaker families. After the Edwardian revival of the early twentieth century, the roll call of family
dynasties that subscribed to the movement has fallen away. The Quaker movement has not been able to maintain its role as a guiding force in business. I was unsure what to expect as I made my way down Euston Road.
Suddenly, I noticed a rose garden on the other side of the road. It seemed incongruous—a garden cast in deep shadow from tall buildings on either side. Despite the bitter October day and the dirt from passing lorries, incredibly the roses were still in bloom, luminous in the wintry light. With traffic obscuring my view, it was hard to tell if the garden was connected in any way with Friends House. Remembering George Cadbury’s passion for roses and his belief that no child should play where a rose could not bloom, I took a closer look. It was a few minutes before I could cross the road, but sure enough, the small rose garden led to the entrance to Friends House.
Stepping inside was like stepping into a different world. A sudden hush prevails, creating a totally different atmosphere from the one outside. Beyond the stone-clad hall, lined with straight-backed benches puritan in their simplicity, are corridors leading to a shady courtyard. It is easy to picture forbears and business leaders gathering here for passionate meetings to discuss the pressing issues of the day.
I met Helen Drewery, head of the international department of the Society of Friends. “People are surprised to discover that we exist,” she said. There was a time when one in ten people in Britain were Quakers, but today there are only 15,000 members. “Quakers don’t put very much store on dogma or church hierarchy,” she said. “We put our energy into trying to make the world a better place.” Inside the neatly kept archives was plenty of evidence to support her point: the antislavery movements of earlier centuries, the Kindertransports that relocated Jewish children before the Second World War, numerous famine relief programs, and, more recently, support for setting up the Child Poverty Action Group and Oxfam. Today, Drewery explains, Quakers have a presence in the world’s greatest trouble spots. There are Quaker offices in New York and Geneva to work through UN agencies. She described an “accompaniment project” on the West Bank, which she calls “a ministry of presence” to help people caught in conflict zones feel that “the world has not forgotten about
them” and to facilitate communication between opposing sides. People say, she continues, that “we punch above our weight, but that never feels like quite a comfortable phrase to use—not for a Quaker.”
Helen Drewery believes that many people feel a hunger for something meaningful in their lives, and because Quakers don’t have a specific creed, “In a way, we are a good space for people to explore what that deeper kind of life is about.” She insists that “everything you do in your life can be for the good. You can reflect on every action you take, what you buy in the shops, the way you speak to each person: Every movement, every action, every word can be for the better or the worse.” The aim “is to nurture something in ourselves—maybe something people would call their conscience, but that seems an inadequate word—a wellspring that early Quakers called ‘the seed’ that touches the ultimate mystery.”
A force for the good surely, a quiet sane voice still there for those who want to hear it in this noisy century, putting the case for ending conflict between cultures and religions and nurturing peace. In today’s material world, where the breathless glamour of celebrity culture holds the public in thrall, the Quaker message has become stifled, shut out from the boardrooms in the City of London just a mile away. It is hard to imagine today’s business leaders giving more than a passing thought to the extraordinary claim of George Fox that the inner light is within us all. But those nineteenth-century entrepreneurs who made this their quest did succeed for a brief period in putting the remarkable Quaker movement in the spotlight. In the process they illuminated a different work ethic on a more human scale between master and man.
Acknowledgments
I
was fortunate to receive help from a great many people who made this account of the chocolate Quaker dynasties and their rivals possible. For expert knowledge on the chocolate branch of the Cadbury family and the history of the company, I would particularly like to thank Sir Adrian Cadbury, one of the firm’s longest serving chairmen. It was an inspiration to discuss the historical research and visit key locations with such a welcoming and informed guide; an experience that I will always look back on with great pleasure. Thank you, too, to former chief executive and chairman Sir Dominic Cadbury for his insights into a critical era in the firm’s history from the 1960s through 2000 and for his patience in dealing with follow-up queries.
I owe a great deal to two members of my family who are no longer living. When I was young, my father, Kenneth Cadbury, and my uncle, Michael Cadbury, provided wonderful accounts of Quaker forebears in the chocolate branch of the family. Perhaps unknowingly, they each embodied different aspects of Quaker culture and helped to inspire this account. My cousin, Duncan Cadbury, chairman of the Bournville Village Trust’s Housing Services Committee, provided invaluable assistance with research into Quaker history and the numerous family trusts. Many others in the wider Cadbury family shared compelling insights into the characters and history, which I have distilled into this account. Any views expressed in the book are my own and do not represent a unified Cadbury view.
For events at Cadbury since 2000, when family members were no longer members of the board, I am grateful to the last chief executive, Todd Stitzer, for discussing his period of leadership, the takeover, and his thinking on principled capitalism. I am also indebted to Cadbury’s last chairman, Roger Carr, for his fascinating account of the takeover and the issues it raised. David Croft, Cadbury’s head of sustainability; Alex Cole, global corporate affairs director; and others at Cadbury provided a wealth of information. Thanks are also due to Sarah Foden, the information manager, and Jackie Jones at the Cadbury archives in Bournville. Sarah provided generous assistance with numerous queries and gave up valuable time to comment on the manuscript.
At Kraft Foods, I am indebted to Steve Yucknut, head of sustainability, Michael Mitchell, head of external communications, and Becky Tousey, head of archives, for answering my questions relating to the company’s history and the takeover. At Nestlé, archivist Tanja Aenis in Vevey, Switzerland, and Alex Hutchinson at Nestlé’s Confectionery Heritage in York investigated historical questions bearing on the early years of Nestlé and Rowntree. Tammy Hamilton at the Hershey Community Archives provided invaluable assistance with the project. At Altria, John Marshall in corporate communications fielded queries pertaining to tobacco litigation. For insights into Mars and other chocolate companies, I received excellent support from a number of specialist archives and have credited them in the bibliography.
At the Society of Friends, I would particularly like to thank Helen Drewery, General Secretary of Quaker Peace and Social Witness, for her perspective on the Quaker movement. Timothy Phillips, chairman of The Quakers and Business Group, raised key questions about the modern business world and changing ethical values. In the library of the Society of Friends, I am indebted to Josef Keith, Joanna Clark, Tabitha Driver, Beverley Kemp, Jennifer Milligan, and Julia Hudson for responding to queries over many months, and I was particularly touched when they traced the unpublished “family book” written by Richard Cadbury in the 1860s, which provides a vivid insight into the early years.
There are so many others who helped during the months of research that it would be impossible to name them all, but I would like to acknowledge Timothy Newman at the International Labour Rights Forum in Washington, D.C.; Dave Goodyear at Fairtrade; Hugh Evans for discussing aspects of Fry history; Adam Leyland, editor of the
Grocer
; and John Bradley.
At PublicAffairs in New York, it was a pleasure to work with Clive Priddle, and I have appreciated his skilled editorial judgment and advice at each stage in the production of the manuscript. I am also grateful to Melissa Veronesi and Nancy King for their thoughtful comments on the text and to Scott McIntyre at Douglas McIntyre in Canada for his continued support. At Curtis Brown, Gordon Wise’s insights and encouragement on the project over many months proved invaluable.
Lastly, I would like to express my thanks to Julia Lilley without whom this book would not have been written. Her generous support for and great faith in the project has, as ever, kept me going through the long months of writing.
Bibliography
ARCHIVES
From the Library of the Society of Friends, Friend’s House, London:
Cadbury, Richard. “Family Book,” Temp MSS 996, 1863.
Fry, Joseph. Records 1727-1787, MS Vol S272.
Fry, Joseph Storrs. Correspondence MS Box 16/4/28.
Fry, Joseph Storrs. Correspondence. Temp MSS 668/1.
Successive editions of the Quaker Book of Discipline:
Christian and Brotherly Advices, Manuscript version, 1738-1749.
Extracts from the Minutes and Advices of the Yearly Meeting of Friends 1783.
Rules of Discipline of the Religious Society of Friends, with Advices, 1834.
Extracts from the Minutes and Advices of the Yearly Meeting . . . held in London . . . relating to Christian Doctrine, Practice and Discipline, 1861.
From the Cadbury Archives, Bournville, Birmingham, England:
Bournville: A Descriptive Account of Cocoa and its Manufacture.
1880.
Bournville Works Magazine
, 1900-1970.
Bridge Street Album. 1830-1900. 010 003250 AZ1.
Cadbury Brothers Fancy Boxes and artwork.
Cadbury Brothers overseas records. 030-090.
Cadbury and Fry company publications.
Fry Company papers. 910-918.2.
Fry’s Works Magazine
, 1922-1929. 910.2 001687.
Fry, J.S. & Sons.,
Bicentennial Issue
:
Fry’s Works Magazine 1728-1928.
Broadmead, Bristol: Partridge and Love, 1928.
Industrial Record: A Review of the Interwar Years, 1919-1939.
Cadbury Bros./ Pitman, 1945.
Somerdale
magazine, 1961-1968. 910.2 001696.
Thirty Years of Progress: A Review of the Growth of the Bournville Works.
1910.
From the Cadbury Papers Collection, Birmingham City Archives, Central Library, Birmingham, England:
Cadbury, Barrow. Letters and notes/gift from employees. UBL MS 466/211-221.
Cadbury, Benjamin Head. Richard Tapper, and others. Family letters, vols 1- 3. UBL MS466/85 1.
Cadbury Brothers. Bull Street and Bournville early images. UBL MS 466/41/ 1/2/3/8/
Cadbury Brothers. Business Affairs: Ledgers and Accounts. UBL MS 466A 39.
Cadbury Brothers. Business Affairs: Wages from 1859-1864. UBL MS 466A/ 1-10.
Cadbury Brothers. UBL MS 466A/163-165.
Cadbury Brothers. December 16. UBL 1910 180/2.
Cadbury, Candia. Letters to her sons John and George, including “A Mother’s Affectionate Desire for Her Children.” UBL MS 466/97 1-53; 466/98; 466/99/1-8; 466/100/1-2.
Cadbury, Elizabeth. Journal. UBL MS/466/ 431-434.
Cadbury, George. Letters. UBL MS 466/209/1-13 and 209/219.
Cadbury, William. Correspondence. November 1907. UBL 1907: 180/365.
Cadbury, William. Miscellaneous personal album. UBL MS 466/32.
Cadbury, William. UBL 1903 180/336.
Notebook. UBL 1909 299-300.
From the Rowntree Papers Collection, Borthwick Institute of Historical Research, University of York, England:
Information on Tanner’s Moat site in the 1890s, including insurance documents, plans for new Haxby Road site, and other documents relating to Rowntree’s factories. HIR 2 10-12 Archive 398.
Reports on the Van Houten process. HIR1/5-13 & HIR 2 1-7.
Rowntree, Joseph. Personal notebooks, correspondence, business memoranda, drawings, etc. Ledger HIR/1 Sections 1-4.
Rowntree, Joseph. Undated agreements on work, wages, machinery, etc. HIR 2 8-12 Archive 376.
MANUSCRIPTS
Fry, Theodore. “A Brief Memoir of Francis Fry.” Unpublished typescript. British Library, London: 1887.
______.
History of J.S. Fry and Sons.
Unpublished typescript.
The London Commodity Exchange. Unpublished typescript from The London Stock Exchange, 1961. City Library, London: FO PAM 1486.
Strong, L. A. G.
The Story of Rowntree.
Unpublished typescript. 1948
Wallace, Paul. The Wallace manuscripts, typescript for the Hershey Trust, 1955.
BOOKS
Acheson, T. W. “The National Policy and the Industrialisation of the Maritimes.” In
Canada’s Age of Industry, 1849-1896
, edited by M. S. Cross and G. S. Kealey, 62-94. Toronto: McClelland and Stewart, 1982.