It's been almost 40 years since these rare photos were taken inside Merseyside's famous chocolate factory.
Chocolate giant Cadbury is celebrating its 200th anniversary this year and recently shared the news on social media that it will be bringing back its iconic packaging design. Over the decades, we've grown to love products like Dairy Milk, Cadbury Fingers and Crunch, and said goodbye to family favorites like Dream, Snowflake, Whispermint and Bar Six.
But many will remember when Cadbury's range of traditional sweets were created right here on Merseyside. The ECHO previously reported that in 1952 Cadbury Brothers began building a factory in Moreton, Wirral, with the aim of regenerating Merseyside after the Second World War.
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Two years later, in 1954, the factory and its surroundings were completed and officially opened on September 17th by Mrs. Lawrence Cadbury. The town center is based on Meadow Road, and it is said that there was also pastureland at this location.
Later, when Cadbury merged with drinks company Schweppes in 1969, employees began producing products for other brands, including Typhoo Tea. In 1986, the factory was taken over by Burton's, which refined chocolate for Cadbury's on site, as well as producing its own brands, including the popular Wagon Wheels and Jammy Dodgers.
These images, sourced from our archive Mirrorpix, haven't been made public for years, and offer a glimpse of what the Morton factory looked like 38 years ago. Both images were taken by him on January 1, 1986, and show workers at the site.
One image shows a variety of Cadbury chocolates, and another shows chocolate fingers being packaged and coming off the production line. Many generations of former workers will remember what the factory looked like here.
Do you have any memories of Cadbury's factory in Moreton? Let us know in the comments section below.
Gene Anderson (formerly Tierney) has lived in Morton ever since he started working in the field in his late teens. We revisited some of her fascinating memories. She previously told the Echo: “My first job before going to Cadbury was as a co-op clerk. You had to be 18 to start working at Cadbury.”
“I lived in Moreton and watched the construction site as the first bricks were being laid, but I didn’t know at the time that it would become a biscuit factory, as my father had also worked there building the factory. , I applied for a job.
“I went for an interview, but I had to go through a medical exam before I could start the job anyway. So I got the job in 1960.” Jean trained in other departments. He said he was first trained in packing milk trays and was allowed to occasionally eat chocolate that he was not allowed to take out.
Jean continued: “I was the corrector when the biscuits came out of the cooler, I was the gripper packer who packed the biscuits into boxes, and I was the weigher who weighed the biscuits, which were then wrapped and boxed before being sent to stores. Morton worked at Cadbury – everyone knew everyone.
“It was a nice atmosphere and I enjoyed working there. I never had a chance to get bored.”
Jean worked in a factory for three years before retiring to get married and live in Liverpool. She took a five-year leave, and Jean returned to the factory for night shifts in between her births.
Around 2011, the Cadbury factory as we knew it closed its doors. The location was then acquired by Belgian chocolate company Barry Callebaut in 2018.
Demolition of the Cadbury factory began in 2019, and in March 2022 Barry Callebaut announced that it had begun a consultation process regarding the potential closure of the factory at the Morton site.
In May 2022, the ECHO reported that Barry Callebaut had confirmed that due to significant reductions in volumes and increased operational restrictions at Morton, the site would cease operations. The closure will result in the loss of 62 jobs, with the factory employing 45 full-time employees and 19 temporary workers.
Cadbury still maintains a factory in Bournville, Birmingham, where all new Cadbury chocolate products are born. However, many still have fond memories of Morton's time at the Cadbury factory.
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