WILLY Wonka has a lot to answer for. I told my four-year-old we were going to Cadbury World.. if she was good (yes, I admit it, the bribery potential was too good to miss) and two weeks later she was still greedy for details.

These are a few bedtime queries: "Will there be a chocolate LAKE at Chocolate World, mummy? Can you eat AS MANY eggs as you like? Do they have a marshmallow sofa?"

And, call me cynical, but I had the hollow sensation of an anti-climax looming. Surely such feverish imaginings could only result in a post-sugar-rush slump?

But, we pulled into those Bournville gates and took a deep breath of chocolate aromas so good they should be bottled. Amber blinked up at the tumbling snow and the perfectly purple doors. "Is it... Christmas?" she asked as she did the mental maths (snow+potential to gorge on chocolate all day= good times).

Barely half an hour later and we’ve charged through the Aztec zone like Crystal Maze time-travellers, been jiggled and roasted like raw cocoa beans and heard the disembodied head of the late John Cadbury tell us about his business vision. So far, so surreal.

And then it cranks up a notch on the Abracadabra ride which meanders around a world of giggling, chortling, pipsqueaks the Chuckle Beans.

Strangely, it's the youngsters who seem to take this trippy wonderland in their stride, while most of the adults I saw were chock-a-block with excitement... and that was just looking at the Cadbury Bunny. Cadbury World first opened its doors in 1990 and has about half a million visitors every year.

Despite growing up in the Midlands, I was never lucky enough to come on a school trip, but I now realise it’s more educational than most multi-billion pound confectionery creators. Yes, it's now owned by Nestle, but have you been to the Mars factory on Slough industrial estate? I've worked there and, trust me, it ain't magical.

In case you didn’t know, we owe a huge debt to the ethical Cadbury family: not just for the sweet stuff but for their revolutionary attitude to living and working standards.

When the factory was built in 1879, while most workers toiled in sweatshops and slept several to a bed in slums, parkland was set aside for workers' downtime. Bournville Garden City was built to offer staff affordable homes and shape the future of housing and employment reform.

The tour doesn’t really dwell on this too much – but you are at liberty to roam the still chocolate-box pretty village on the other side of the gates to see a thriving retro community which feels a world apart from most Brummie estates.

There are 14 different zones, stacked higgledy-piggledy around the factory site. And, despite being handed chocolate bars at every other turn, every so often you'll stumble across some workers routinely going about their business, whether it's shaking molten chocolate into Easter shells or enrobing dozens of careless Wispas in Dairy Milk.

There are no Oompa Loompas, but, hours after leaving with bags of factory goodies, the kids' eyes were still as round as Augustus Gloop’s.

Cadbury World is about an hour's drive from Oxford in Bournville, Birmingham.
From tomorrow (Good Friday) until Easter Monday (29 March – 1 April), children can enjoy an Easter Egg Trail, as well as have the chance to win Cadbury World prizes in a bonnet competition. Visit cadburyworld.co.uk