Our History
The Blackminster site was built in the early 1900's by George Cadbury of the Cadbury's Chocolate family. His idea was to create a fruit canning factory situated right in the heart of The Vale of Evesham, where the supply of local fruit would be plentiful. Helping to supply such fruit was the recently formed co-operative called "Littleton and Badsey Growers" who had established themselves on the then "Blackminster Rail yard" now currently occupied by Jeremy Round Cars.
George Cadbury had several buildings built, mostly two storeys with 18 inch solid brick walls, 9 inch solid concrete floors and in the basement of No7 building some 6,000 sq ft of brickwork arches, a real site to see. These we believe stored the fruit at a constant temperature before canning.
These buildings have now been sympathetically restored and sub-divided into more manageable units, and are still available to view with the permission of their new tenants. Many original architects' drawings have been found on the site, some drawn on linen and scribed by Cadbury's own drafts-men.
Of particular interest is the four storey building as you enter the park with breathtaking views over the open countryside, the roadside shops, once the Cadbury workers "Dining Hall" complete with male and female changing and bathing facilities, and "The Old Boiler House" that once stood proud with a 50 ft octagonal chimney.
The Cadbury fruit canning adventure however was a short lived business and the site was soon taken over by the ever evolving Littleton & Badsey Growers co-operative. During the war years the old Cadbury's Dining Hall was used for producing aircraft pilot's goggles and also gas masks. After the war LBG as it was affectionately known went from strength to strength helping their members and many local market gardeners produce and distribute their products throughout the country, the 3.5 acre site was as busy as ever when in 2001 The Littleton & Badsey Growers successfully took over GMS (Growers Marketing Supplies) together with their premises on "Vale Business Park" this signaled the demise of the site in Blackminster to little more than a lot of empty run down old buildings.
After several attempts by LBG to sell the site and the constant threat of bulldozers the future looked grim, until by chance Paul Middleton owner of Midfield Properties who ironically now owns the old LBG rail yard site, asked the LBG and not for the first time, if he could buy the 3 cottages they also owned next to the site, they were originally built by Cadbury's as Foreman's and night watchman's accommodation, the answer yet again was no, and Paul was told if he wanted the cottages he would have to buy the site as well.
The rest, as they say is history, he did buy both, and with a vision for the creation of an "Enterprise Village" Blackminster Business Park is now in the making.
Blackminster Today
Blackminster Business Park is built for a purpose but not purpose-built. We're building a business community based on the diversity and character of the businesses themselves in a sympathetically restored historical setting in the Vale of Evesham, Worcestershire.
Business property with a difference
A modern mixture of retail outlets, workshops, offices and warehousing, Blackminster Business Park is home to a great variety of specialist shops and suppliers. Alongside shops selling Kitchens & Tiles, hearing aids, and soft furnishings sit businesses specialising in, car servicing, bikes, interior design, and stationery. Most are local in origin but others come from as far a field as Italy, well beyond the borders of Worcestershire.
Appealing to enterprises of such different size and nature, the buildings vary in shape and detail and have been restored and converted by specialist builders using traditional materials and methods in keeping with the history of these Evesham business units. A century or more of market gardening has created a series of buildings unlike any other Worcestershire business property. Their historic character makes them highly prized by businesses looking at Midlands business parks.
Evesham business property in the right place.
In an area of outstanding natural beauty, Blackminster Business Park is an attractive base to do business in and to visit. With easy access to major routes such as the A44 and A46, and so to the M5, M6, M40 and M42, it's within reach of regional centres such as Worcester, Cheltenham, The Cotswold's, Stratford and Redditch, with Hereford, Gloucester, Warwick, Coventry and Birmingham beyond. It's great to be developing a Worcestershire business park of such diversity and character, building upon a century of one close-knit business community, now creating another - a community in the making.