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Keynsham Cadbury's factory due to close later this year

The history of the Cadbury factory at Keynsham is being celebrated in a one-off exhibition on the site.

The Somerdale Story is a collection of photographs, products, documents and memorabilia from the Cadbury's factory's heyday.

It's being held at the town's famous Fry Club until Thursday 26th and will be the last time the public can see the entire collection altogether.

The Keynsham factory started life in the 1920's, but since the takeover of Cadbury's by the American firm Kraft, the site has been earmarked for closure with the loss of around 400 local jobs.

Mike Burt started working for Cadbury's when was just 16-years-old and has just retired. He told us he loved working there: "Whether you were a manager, a production worker, a tradesman or whether you worked on the services, everybody said good morning and good afternoon. I know it sounds like a cliché, but that's how it was.

"We worked hard and we played hard. We wouldn't have been here for over 80 years unless we were successful."

He added it's a great shame that after all this time, the factory will be closing: "It has become accepted, people have got to move on. But it's such an iconic building within the local community and the whole of Bristol."

After this week's exhibition, some of the archive material will be given to Bristol's museum services and is expected to be displayed at the new museum the M-Shed which opens next year.

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