Somerdale Factory

Somerdale, is a factory located in Keynsham near Bristol and Bath in south west England. It is the home of a Cadbury's production factory, and was originally built by the Fry family when they expanded out of the centre of Bristol.

The J.S. Fry and Sons business merged with Cadbury in 1919, and moved their factory in the centre of Bristol to Keynsham in 1935. As Quakers, the factory was built in a 228 acre greenfield site with social facilities, including playing fields and recreational sports grounds. Called Somerdale after a national competition in 1923, Keynsham Cadbury is the home of Fry's Chocolate Cream, the Double Decker, Dairy Milk, Chocolate Buttons, Cream Eggs and Mini Eggs, Cadbury's Fudge, Chomp and most importantly, the Crunchie. According to Cadbury Employees (or 'Chocolate Welders' as they are locally known), the Crunchie Machine makes enough bars to stretch to The Moon and back every week.

On 3 October, 2007, Cadbury announced plans to close the Somerdale plant by 2010 with the loss of some 500 jobs. In an effort to maintain competitiveness in a global marketplace, production will be moved to a sister factory in Poland. Another motivational factor was the high real estate value of the land. In the longer term it is likely the greenfield site will be re-classified and provide Keynsham with much needed additional housing. Labour MP for Wansdyke, Dan Norris said "news of the factory's closure is a hard and heavy blow, not just to the workforce, but to the Keynsham community as a whole". [cite web |url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/business/7025413.stm |title=Cadbury factories shed 700 jobs |accessdate=2007-10-03 |last= |first= |coauthors= |date=3 October 2007 |work=BBC News |publisher=]

In late 2007 campaigns to save the Cadbury's Factory in Somerdale were in full swing. One local resident started a campaign to urge English Heritage to protect the site, and preserve the history of the factory. If successful this campaign is hoped to stop the land being sold for housing, and the historic Somerdale factory being destroyed. As of 13 December, 2007 this petition has 24 signatures of local residents, including Roger Berry - MP for Kingswood in South Gloucestershire. The campaign, titled 'Save Our Somerdale', is being run online at [http://www.saveoursomerdale.co.uk saveoursomerdale.co.uk]

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