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Dunlop Building

hi.i worked at fort dunlop as a internal truck driver.working nights.the space it took up was vast.the part that went from the newport rd was nick named the ponderosa,becouse of its size.in the fort was filled with all kind of wonderfull
things from the past,just stored there.i loved to have a look around. The rubber bugs was huge things,but you got used to em.every morning the paperman delivered the milk and papers,he had a old truck,,that would never start prop,most mornings i had to give it a push with a fork truck to start the thing.up as far as the tyburn rd.lol
happy times.
pete
 
hi.i worked at fort dunlop as a internal truck driver.working nights.the space it took up was vast.the part that went from the newport rd was nick named the ponderosa,becouse of its size.in the fort was filled with all kind of wonderfull
things from the past,just stored there.i loved to have a look around. The rubber bugs was huge things,but you got used to em.every morning the paperman delivered the milk and papers,he had a old truck,,that would never start prop,most mornings i had to give it a push with a fork truck to start the thing.up as far as the tyburn rd.lol
happy times.
pete

I worked in Machine Tool from 1973 to 1981.
As you say great memories.People smile when I talk about the black hole and rubber bugs.
I've just started to pick my up my Dunlop pension, not a lot but every little helps.
 
Loved going to the Sports Days in the early l950's. Horse rides and
swings, etc. I did work there on three temp assignments in the
early 1960's before I went to live in Canada. One assignment was in the main building on the second floor I think. It was the International Marketing Division and I spent three weeks there. The Ladies toilets were very old and dingy I remember. I worked in two other departments but one of them was a good l0 to l5 minutes walk from the main gates at Tyburn Road. My boyfriend in the late l950's worked at Dunlop and we attended
a few dances held at Pens Hall. Great times. Glad to see that The Fort has finally been used again. I hated it with that ad wrapping all over it.
 
I worked at The Dunlop in the last few weeks that I lived in Brum in the mid sixties. I had just graduated from Birmingham College of Art and was off to Goldsmith’s College in London. It was my last student holiday job before moving. I worked with the steel erectors, a maintenance team. I felt guilty most of the time I was there as the two blokes I worked with wouldn’t let me do anything that involved heavy lifting. I was in my late twenties and much fitter than they were; one of them was probably close to retirement age. I had a good time with them though and was able to see all of the factory as I followed them round from day to day. That year was also the last year I smoked, like many people then I smoked around forty a day. We were given regular smoking breaks in a special room to comply with safety regulations. It was a large room with a high ceiling and benches around the side. The walls and ceiling were covered with a thick brown sticky deposit of nicotine. I used always get a special feeling as I passed the factory as I came into Birmingham on the M6. (I have to come in from the west now). It’s the first sign that you are back home.
 
hi.froth.people used to think i was pulling there leg when i told them about the bugs.and crickets. last time i went in there was around 1989.down the main passage,past the mill.it was being demolished.so sad all that history gone with a swing of a hammer.
 
hi.froth.people used to think i was pulling there leg when i told them about the bugs.and crickets. last time i went in there was around 1989.down the main passage,past the mill.it was being demolished.so sad all that history gone with a swing of a hammer.

My saddest day was when they knocked down the club, I cried for a week.
 
hi.good club that.sadly i could only use it weekends.one weekend i try'd that fruit machine that was in there.and won £45.the man using it before me was not very happy.as he put a lot in."more fool him" and won nothing i only put in a quid.lol
 
When I first joined Erdington Operatic Society in the early 1980's we put our shows on at the Dunlop Hall. Might have been a good place for a drink, but as a theatre it was a disaster. Terrible place. We used to spend about 2 days just cleaning it before a show. The dressing-rooms were appalling, the ladies' dressing-room being under the stage with a 5'6" ceiling.

Who remembers the stuffed crocodile in the bar??

Big Gee
 
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
 
It might have been a rotten stage but your shows were the best.


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
 
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

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
 
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

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.
 
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.

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.
 
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