Photograph: Christopher Furlong/Getty Images Bournville locals fear the Cadbury factory will close, taking 5,000 jobs with it. He said: "It really is a joy and a pleasure to play this magnificent instrument and we are extremely lucky to have it here. Bournville Park may lie just a few metres away from the busy outer circle A4040 Linden Road, but step inside and it's a tranquil oasis of calm and greenery.

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Across the other side of Bournville Lane is the highly visible cricket pitch and Mens’ Recreation Ground. It has a collection of trees to rival any bigger park - plus it has a jaw-dropping ornamental pond of such classic design it’s almost as if the Romans left it behind. I was raised a few miles down the road from the village founded by George Cadbury, who moved his chocolate factory out of the Birmingham slums in 1879, and my family still live in the area. Dating back from medieval times, in its past it can boast an Italian wine merchant, a burglar and of course, a world famous chocolate maker. One woman out walking told BirminghamLive: "It's beautiful in the spring and summer when all the trees and flowers are out.

We look to encourage the runner in all of us and to make membership of Bournville Harriers as fulfilling an experience as possible. The playing fields host a Mayflower festival ever year, and on Christmas Eve the 48-bell carillon in the school bell tower plays O Come All Ye Faithful as 7,000 people crowd around a huge decorated tree on the green to sing carols. Originally built for Cadbury workers, they remain more or less intact from when they were built at the end of the 19th Century.

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Anyone getting on or off a train at Bournville is in no doubt where they are, or that it's linked to Cadbury!At one time the gardens were part of the long-demolished Bournbrook Hall, which was bought by Richard and George Cadbury. The bell tower and the cricket square will survive if the factory disappears and so too, I suspect, will the very English ambience. However, the newsagent is not part of the Bournville Village Trust estate and therefore, the estate is still "dry" with nowhere selling alcohol. The local BBC radio station hasn't played an American song all week and although Cadbury employees are reluctant to talk, it is impossible to find anyone who is in favour of the deal.

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Rowheath Pavilion is well-used and is the home of Bournville Harriers running club and also a wedding venue and community hub. My maternal grandparents' house on Bournville Lane, a few hundred yards from the site, is owned by the trust, set up by George Cadbury in 1900 to manage much of the land and property surrounding the factory. BVT chairman, Duncan Cadbury, said: "Bournville has grown from the model village begun in 1895, into a large garden suburb that is renowned for its good quality housing and landscaping. Bournville is more than just a bar of dark chocolate - it's also one of the most historic, fascinating and downright quirky suburbs of Birmingham. Tucked away in Maple Road, this is a beautiful Tudor building housing a delightful museum you may not have ever heard of.If the company had fought off the Kraft proposal, the club – cavernous enough to host boxing bouts when I was a teenager – might have been sold, with the money raised handed to City shareholders as a sweetener in exchange for rejecting the bid. We felt Bournville was located perfectly in between these suburbs and had a highly environmentally conscious, residential neighbourhood. Cadbury World is situated in the historic Bournville village The site of the original 'Factory in a Garden'. The Cadbury family were famously Quakers and this influenced their business practices with no alcohol being sold in Bournville,They also helped to create the old age pension and what is now the RSPCA. The Cadbury family set up Bournville as a garden village and was very keen for the residents of its houses to feel they were living amongst greenery.

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But then Bournville's founder, George Cadbury, saved the building and arranged its move from its original home in Selly Oak into Bournville where it stands today.

From the Village Green to Bournville Park and Rowheath Pavilion's playing fields, the suburb is very lush and verdant. Now that Kraft has upped its offer – and borrowed much of the money to finance it – it is likely that it too will be looking for assets to sell.