Description:‘[Where] industrial life today is concerned, Work and Play are not only closely related subjects, but one subject’.<small><sup>1</sup></small>
The classic image of the Cadbury’s girl at leisure, in the early twentieth century is typified by H.N. Bradbear’s view of the Girls' Grounds. Bradbear produced watercolour views of both the men’s and girls' recreation grounds, as part of a group of illustrations entitled the ‘Bournville Series’, a set of colour postcards illustrating the Bournville Works and grounds. Copies of the postcards are contained within an album of <a href="http://www.search.suburbanbirmingham.org.uk/engine/resource/default.asp?resource=1776"> ‘Stiffeners and Coupon Sheets 1906-1916’</a>, and were probably used as promotional gifts within boxes of chocolates.<small><sup>2</sup></small> Whilst both images are undated, the style of dress suggests that they date to around 1910. What is most striking about both views; and, indeed, other Bradbear watercolours of the factory exterior and its grounds, is his use of colour, typical of the artwork produced for Cadbury during the 1910s and 1920s. Bradbear’s depiction of the girls' ground emphasised its seclusion and separation from Bournville Road, on which it was located, as well as from the men’s ground by high box hedging and fencing. Beyond this boundary the Pavilion within the men’s ground and factory buildings can be seen in the distance. The girls' ground consisted of four acres of land.<small><sup>3</sup></small> The positioning of the artist is from a slightly raised viewpoint, emphasising the feeling of seclusion. The grounds are laid out in a series of walks around the central focus of the ornamental lily pond. The peaceful image of the lily pond was used frequently in Cadbury advertising and marketing.
<font color="#666633"><small><sup>1</sup> Bournville Work & Play (Bournville, 1926), p.3 [BA&H: LP 66.53 BOU]
<sup>2</sup> Stiffeners and Coupon Sheets 1906-1916, pp.120-121 [BA&H: MS 466/18]
<sup>3</sup> Horn, ‘Women Workers in the 1920s’, Genealogists Magazine (March 1994), p.401</small></font>