| Description | Lily Sturge wrote to Elizabeth Taylor Cadbury following the visit to Bournville by the National Union of Women Workers. Both Lily and her sister, who lived locally on the Hagley Road in Edgbaston, had attended the conference and had visited Bournville with other delegates.
Lily Sturge remarks on the overwhelming impression of Bournville on new visitors, writing 'I expect you have so many parties that it must be difficult to remember how things appear to those who come first to Bournville'. She writes that she had listened to the comments which some of the delegates had made about their visit and remarks on what she had heard. Sturge refers to the tour of Bournville village and the Cadbury factory and also the speech which Taylor Cadbury's husband George Cadbury had delivered to delegates. Notably Sturge remarks that she had heard one lady who had 'much influence in her own village' express her eagerness to obtain all the 'information' she could about Bournville. She suggests that the lady 'was likely to work out practically anything that she saw' at Bournville, reflecting Bournville's influence on wider social reform during the early twentieth century.
Lily Sturge also writes that delegates had been 'astonished' by Taylor Cadbury's hospitality and were particularly intrigued by the facilities provided for female workers at the Cadbury factory. She refers specifically to the 'swimming bath' and notes how 'charming' she had found the 'drill' demonstrated by the Cadbury girls, displaying the provision of physical training made for women workers at the Cadbury factory.
At the conclusion of her letter Lily Sturge notes that Elizabeth Taylor Cadbury had been suffering from a bad cold during the Conference, expressing her admiration that Taylor Cadbury had continued to participate in the conference despite her ill-health. |