Mike Laycock visits chocolate heaven, otherwise known as Cadbury World.

IT was like one of those sponsored challenges: how many bars of chocolate can you eat at one go?

It started as we were entering the exhibition and were each handed a couple of bars. It continued with two more before we entered the factory's packaging plant. Then, in the chocolatiers' demonstration area, we were handed little pots of warm, liquid chocolate, and we could also indulge in fudge dipped in more of the same.

To be honest, I'd already given up half way through my second bar, but for my daughter Gabrielle and her friend Josh, Cadbury World - situated alongside Cadbury's factory in Bournville, Birmingham - was little short of a chocolate paradise.

And there were plenty of exhibits to keep them amused and entertained as well, such as Cadabra, featuring Jorvik-style rides but in little cars looking like Noddy's, which took us around displays of animatronic chocolate creatures.

Similar characters, complete with Brummie accents, entertained us in a slightly bizarre and surreal "interactive family show" called Cadbury Land. There were more of them in Fantasy Factory, a light-hearted look at how chocolate is made, a highlight of which was a bubbling tank of thick, swirling molten chocolate.

Cadbury World also has a mission to educate and inform about the history and technology of chocolate making and the philanthropic and progressive work of the Quaker Cadbury family, who built Bournville as a garden village for their workers to live in.

But quite a few gimmicks have been built in to stop children's attention wandering off.

For example, as we sat a little theatre hearing how the cocoa beans needed to be shaken up at one point in the manufacturing process, the bench seats we were sitting on started rocking swiftly from side to side to emphasise the point.

A display explaining the role of the Aztecs in the discovery of chocolate was set in a recreated tropical rainforest, and holograms explained how chocolate came to Europe in the 15th century.

Visiting the packaging plant of the adjacent chocolate factory, we watched through Perspex screens as giant Dairy Milk bars were wrapped and boxed by robots.

It takes about two and a half hours to get to Cadbury World along the motorway network. But the youngsters agreed the long journey had been well worthwhile.

Fact file:

Cadbury World: Open daily, 10am to 4pm. It is advisable to book tours in advance.

Admission: Adult: £9; children four to 15, £6.80; under four, free.

To get there: Take M1 and then A42 and M42. Turn off at Junction 2, and follow A141 towards Cotteridge, following brown signs to Cadbury World.

Further information: contact 0121 451 4159, or visit www.cadburyworld.co.uk

Updated: 16:01 Friday, July 02, 2004