For Quakers, career options in the early 19th century were limited. Excluded from the universities, which had strong links to the established church, they could not obtain qualifications and so couldn’t pursue professions. They were in effect barred from public office and, as pacifists, they couldn’t join the armed forces. So it was more than just a coincidence that many of them went into business, often with conspicuous success.

One of these Quakers was John Cadbury, who in 1824 opened a shop in central Birmingham selling mainly tea and coffee, with cocoa and drinking chocolate as a sideline. This was a business with a conscience: Quakers believed in equality and social justice, and Cadbury hoped his products would prove an attractive alternative to alcohol, seen as the principle cause of poverty and deprivation among the working classes. As the chocolate business grew, Cadbury’s sons decided to build a factory in what was then open countryside a few miles south of the city centre. The “factory in a garden”, named Bournville, greatly improved working conditions for employees, who also benefited from decent wages, medical services and a pioneering pension scheme. But that was just the start: the Cadburys then set about improving the workers’ lives by building a new village for them consisting of light, airy cottages with gardens, a park, several acres of playing fields with a clubhouse and pavilion, a fishing lake, an outdoor swimming lido, adult education classes – and not a single pub.