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Bournville Village was founded in 1893, when chocolate manufacturers George and Richard Cadbury bought 120 acres of land near their Birmingham factory to prove that industrial housing didn’t have to be cramped or grim, at a time when the average life expectancy in Britain’s factory towns sat around 40. They built spacious, well-designed homes open to anyone, not just their own workforce, and set aside roughly a tenth of the estate for parks and open space.
Bournville Village Trust was founded in 1900 to carry that vision forward, and the model it established went on to shape Britain’s garden city movement. The estate has since grown to 1,000 acres and around 7,600 properties, held under a mix of secure and assured tenancies, leasehold and freehold arrangements, with green space remaining central to how the community is laid out.
Three Phases In, A Trusted Relationship
Having delivered two successful phases of window renewal across the estate, TRC’s relationship with Bournville Village Trust has moved from contractor on site to trusted custodian of the community. Phase Three continues that work at scale, with the team on schedule to renew another 700 windows across occupied properties, alongside ancillary repairs, glazing upgrades, decoration, scaffolding and tenant liaison.
Carried Forward From Phase One and Two, Not Reinvented
Certain standards don’t change from phase to phase, because they’re what makes the estate’s conservation status workable at all. Every window is designed through faithful replication, with glazing bars, horns and decorative beading reproduced so new windows read as though they were never replaced. TRC uses premium treated hardwood chosen for longevity, with every unit exceeding Part L thermal standards to a minimum 1.4 U-value.
Box frames are retained where sound and refurbished rather than ripped out, limiting disruption and material waste, and glazing is Kitemark-certified to BS EN 1279, fitted in line with BS 8213-4 survey and installation guidance. None of this is new to Phase Three, it’s the baseline Bournville Village Trust now expects, and the reason TRC keeps being asked back.
The Part That Doesn't Show Up In The Spec
Every property on this estate is occupied, which means the real skill in a project like this isn’t the joinery, it’s carrying out that joinery around people’s daily lives without them noticing much beyond a knock at the door and a tidy job.
Tenant liaison, careful sequencing, and close coordination with Bournville Village Trust’s architects and conservation officers are as much a deliverable here as the windows themselves, a balance that’s been tested and refined on an estate that has weighed heritage against habitability since 1893.
