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Dunlop Building

It might have been a rotten stage but your shows were the best.
 
Mike,

That's the nicest thing anyone's said to me today and I really appreciate it! I've had a rotten Sunday - backed the car into a frigging steel bollard at the garage, and this afternoon we had a drain blockage courtesy of the heavy rain.

We put The Mikado on at Sutton Town Hall in November, and if you'd like to come, remind me nearer the time and there'll be a free ticket for you.

Best, Big Gee
 
mike-g said:
It might have been a rotten stage but your shows were the best.
Click to expand...


I remember, we had to use the theatre room for weeks while they rebuilt the clubhouse. We must have had the highest disos in the country on that stage.LOL
 
Big Gee said:
Mike,

That's the nicest thing anyone's said to me today and I really appreciate it! I've had a rotten Sunday - backed the car into a frigging steel bollard at the garage, and this afternoon we had a drain blockage courtesy of the heavy rain.

We put The Mikado on at Sutton Town Hall in November, and if you'd like to come, remind me nearer the time and there'll be a free ticket for you.

Best, Big Gee
Click to expand...

Do you remember George Fletcher?
 
Hi Froth,

Yes, I remember George Fletcher - he was in the Dunlop Society, though, and I was in Erdington. He usually played the comic baritone parts in G&S, such as the Lord Chancellor in Iolanthe and Ko-Ko in The Mikado. I think he's still around.

Big Gee
 
Big Gee said:
Hi Froth,

Yes, I remember George Fletcher - he was in the Dunlop Society, though, and I was in Erdington. He usually played the comic baritone parts in G&S, such as the Lord Chancellor in Iolanthe and Ko-Ko in The Mikado. I think he's still around.

Big Gee
Click to expand...

Blimey! he must be getting on a bit.
I use to work with him in Machine Tool Dept at the fort.
He drove us crackers rehearsing his pieces.
 
Last time I saw him was at a party about 20 years ago and he was in the pink! Last time I saw him on stage was in Die Fledermaus at the Old Rep.

I've got rehearsals tomorrow and there'll be someone there who knew/knows him better than I do, and I'll ask.

Big Gee
 
The ground floor of the fort was called base stores, goods inward/outward, the outward area had like rail decks and destination signs that looked like BR station names.
 
I worked at the Dunlop on the maintenance Old Mill CPD and West Mill from 1965 to 1980 best place i ever worked some real charactors picked up my defered pension paid by somebody called Invensis these days.
We even had a bar in the canteen so that the nightshift used to come from the club clock in and carry on drinking in the canteen a real throwback from the war years.
 
maybell said:
I worked at the Dunlop on the maintenance Old Mill CPD and West Mill from 1965 to 1980 best place i ever worked some real charactors picked up my defered pension paid by somebody called Invensis these days.
We even had a bar in the canteen so that the nightshift used to come from the club clock in and carry on drinking in the canteen a real throwback from the war years.
Click to expand...

Them 2 canteens ( 1 for clean wear, the other for overalls ) were bigger then some other companys.
My first bank was the TSB inside Dunlop. The medical centre was good, if you wanted a rest, just say you'd got a migraine and one of the lovely nurses who put you in a darkened room for a couple hours.Great on a Monday after a skin full at the weekend.
 
hi dave...some nice pics there..thanks for posting them...glad you enjoyed your wander round today...

lyn
 
There are some amazing old photo's on here of the old Fort Dunlop as it was. Thanks for sharing them. I would have loved to have gained access when this place was derelict, but alas I was just way too late!!!!

Neil
 
Hi

I worked for Racing Division from 1960 to 1968 do you remember Stan who used to come round in his mobile van and serve up the BEST bacon sarnies I have ever had. Boss of Racing Div was Dick Jeffries, there was Mike Princep, Alan (Chalkie) White, Parick Monahan (we got rid of him) Harold Kershaw was in charge of the Garage, Derrick Adams, John Tonks, ALex Maskell, Ian Mills (who became and MP) Norman ?(names gone) Arthur Davidson, Jimmy ? (he was only 16 and the boys gave him hell). Great times, I came out to NZ to run the Racing Division here for 10 years.
 
hello there was a lot of post on dunlop but i can not find them now.i worked for internal transport 7 nights a week.i did not go to the reunion.
i saw enough of rubber bugs lol
 
Hi Gillian
I am researching my family and have come accross a great uncle who was a manager at Dunlop - would anyone remember him his name was William Peare (possibly Pearce) and most likely from Ireland.
Would love any information

THanks Sharon
 
Dunlops has a special significance for me. I had just finished my degree course at Birmingham College of Art and as my last ever holiday job, I worked at the Dunlop in the holiday with two good friends of mine, also having finished at the college. At the end of my time there I left Brum for London to start at Goldsmiths College in London; never to return to Birmingham again except to visit my family. When I drove into Brum from my home in London along the M6 I always had a special feeling when I passed
the Dunlop
 
Thanks for the memories. I've walked though that main gate a thousand times to work. Got drunk in the club at weekends, happy days.
Sadly everything in those photos have all gone now,shame.
 
As a new comer to this site, I thought I would start a thread about Fort Dunlop, then I found this had already been started, so here's my two pennyworth.
My farther worked at Fort Dunlop most of his working life, starting before the Great War, returning after the conflict and staying there until retirement.
I think he finished up as a foreman in base stores.
During his time there he was in charge of the section that made the tyres for John Cobbs racing cars, and when Mr. Cobb was in the factory my dad often had lunch with him.
Dad also had one of his brothers work there, plus three of my brothers worked there at the same time.
Unfortunately I have no photo's of Dad while he was there.
I have a booklet about the Fort somewhere, if I can find it I'll copy some of the pictures and post.
 
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