It made family favourites for decades
It’s been decades since these incredible images were taken inside a famous, now lost, Merseyside chocolate factory. Now over 200 years old, chocolate giant Cadbury has long been a family favourite for many.
Going on to create sweet treats like Dairy Milk, Cadbury Fingers, the Crunchie and more, the brand began all the way back in 1824. And it also has a special tie to many of generations across Merseyside.
For decades, a number of classic Cadbury treats were made here on Merseyside, in Moreton, Wirral. Back in 1952, Cadbury Bros Ltd began building the factory in the hopes of regenerating Merseyside after WWII, the Liverpool ECHO previously reported.
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By September 17, 1954, the site was officially opened by Mrs Lawrence Cadbury. Based on Pasture Road, it was also said to have had its own library and social club with activities for workers to enjoy.
In later years, the workforce began making products from other brands when Cadbury merged with drinks company Schweppes in 1969, including Typhoo Tea. In 1986, the factory was taken over by Burton’s, which refined chocolate for Cadbury’s on site, as well as manufacturing its own brands such as favourites Wagon Wheels and Jammie Dodgers.
Ahead of Easter, Cadbury shared these incredible photos with the ECHO of the Moreton site decades ago. Courtesy of Cadbury Archive, Mondelez International, many former workers and people across Merseyside will likely have not seen these images before.
Some are undated, whereas others were taken in the 1950s and 1980s. One image captures the outside of the site over 70 years ago.
Other lovely photographs show staff on the production line. Many generations of former workers will remember the factory as it looks here or spot a familiar face.
As part of the Liverpool ECHO’s How It Used To Be series, we previously spoke to Jean Anderson, formerly Tierney, who had lived in Moreton her whole life when she began working on the site in her late teens. For Easter weekend, we wanted to revisit some of her fascinating memories .
She previously told the ECHO: “My first job before I went to Cadbury was a shop assistant for the Co-Op. You had to be 18 to start at Cadbury.
“Living in Moreton, I watched that being built from laying the first brick, I didn’t know at the time it was going to be a biscuit factory. My dad also worked there building it, so I applied for a job.
“I went for an interview, you had to have a medical before you started anyway and I got the job in 1960.” Jean first trained on packing Milk Trays before being trained in other departments and said she was allowed to occasionally eat some of the chocolate that was not to be taken out.
Jean continued: “I was a straightener as biscuits came out of cooler, I was a gripper packer putting biscuits into boxes, I was a weigher weighing biscuits that then went to be wrapped and boxed to go out to the shops. I think everybody from Moreton worked in Cadbury – everybody knew everybody.
“It was a lovely atmosphere, it was a pleasure working there. You never had the chance to get bored.”
Jean worked at the factory for three years until she left when she got married and went to live in Liverpool. After a five year break, Jean returned to the factory for evening shifts between having her children.
Around 2011, the doors of the Cadbury factory as we knew it closed. The site was later acquired by Belgian chocolate firm Barry Callebaut in 2018.
Demolition of the Cadbury factory began in 2019, and in March 2022, Barry Callebaut announced it had started a consultation process on the potential closure of its factory on the Moreton site.
In May 2022, the ECHO reported how Barry Callebaut had confirmed the site would cease operations owing to a significant decrease in volume at Moreton, along with a growing number of operational restrictions. The closure would result in the loss of 62 jobs, with the plant having employed 45 permanent employees and 19 agency workers.
Cadbury still has a factory in Bournville, Birmingham, which is where every new Cadbury’s chocolate product starts life. But many still hold fond memories of life at Moreton’s Cadburys factory.