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Dunlop Building

  • Thread starter Thread starter Wendy
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From https://kevinapears.wixsite.com/dunlop-golf-balls/history

Scottish born Vet John Boyd Dunlop founded Dunlop in 1888. The company initially manufactured rubber tires. In 1907 they started to make golf balls, the first attempt being a bramble type ball called "The Dunlop Ball". Other balls such as The Dunlop, The Orange Spot, Junior, Manor and V all quickly followed as Dunlop tried to establish themselves in this new arena. Early production was at Manor Mills, Aston in Birmingham. However Fort Dunlop, once the worlds largest factory was built 1916 and ball and tire production was moved there. ​

It was the introduction of the Dunlop lattice mesh ball in 1922, first patented by Dunlop employee Albert Penfold in 1912 which allowed Dunlop to take the golf ball world by storm. From the early 1920's until the 1990's Dunlop balls were regularly used by winners of the Open Golf Championship and in many overseas championships too. Cotton, Daly, Locke, Faulkner, Thomson, Charles, Di Vincenzo, Player, Jacklin, Lyle and Strange all used Dunlops. Arnold Palmer and Jack Nicklaus have used Dunlop balls at times in their careers too.​

 
Dyan said:
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.
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Mark, many thank for posting this it a super article. I would be very interested to know where the workers houses were built?

I do recall the Dunlop bus service with stops along Holly Lane.

It is interesting how the whole organisation was structured itself around it workforce providing local employment and a health and wellbeing infrastructure. The likes of Jack Welch and his theories of the small-company atmosphere.
 
Morturn said:
Mark, many thank for posting this it a super article. I would be very interested to know where the workers houses were built?

I do recall the Dunlop bus service with stops along Holly Lane.

It is interesting how the whole organisation was structured itself around it workforce providing local employment and a health and wellbeing infrastructure. The likes of Jack Welch and his theories of the small-company atmosphere.
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I started at Fort Dunlop in 1982 - as I understood it a lot of the workers houses were built along the Tyburn Road. I used to get the 40A bus from Lozells Rd initially (we lived in Newtown then), and got off at the still extant tram shelters in Holly Lane. Various things changed over the years - K & B blocks went to JLR, the proving ground became the Fort Shopping Centre, a new Dynamics building was built behind tyre technical and the medical centre became the new canteen when the old canteen, shop and bank closed. When Sumitomo took over Dunlop in 1985 the bottom of south offices, plus tyre 6 and tyre 2 were fenced off as Dunlop Aero, as this was not included in the sale. Commercial Offices, Computer Annexe and everything at the top of the site were replaced by Tyrefort in 2002, the IT dept moved into the tyre technical building and slowly the rest of the site was raised to the ground - mostly acquired by JLR. Other factories at Washington, Speke, Coventry, Patricroft, Inchinnan, etc (and even Goodyear's huge factory in Wolverhampton) went with them. Sports field is now warehouses, and test fleet garages are now Spitfire Industrial Park. Dunlop Chemical Products (or Dunlop Semtex as it was called then - cannot think why they changed the name.....) is now B & Q. East Drive and Chester Rd Gate became the end of the Heartlands Spine Road. Buildings on the west of the site became Wingfoot Way (a nod to Goodyear). Now what is left of the massive UK Dunlop and Goodyear organisations (called Goodyear GB Ltd) is in 1 and a bit floors of a rented building on the Birmingham Industrial Park.

Perhaps Donald Trump is right - there is something to be said for tariffs to protect local manufacturing industry? Discuss........
 
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Mark Tooze said:
I started at Fort Dunlop in 1982 - as I understood it a lot of the workers houses were built along the Tyburn Road. I used to get the 40A bus from Lozells Rd initially (we lived in Newtown then), and got off at the still extant tram shelters in Holly Lane. Various things changed over the years - K & B blocks went to JLR, the proving ground became the Fort Shopping Centre, a new Dynamics building was built behind tyre technical and the medical centre became the new canteen when the old canteen, shop and bank closed. When Sumitomo took over Dunlop in 1985 the bottom of south offices, plus tyre 6 and tyre 2 were fenced off as Dunlop Aero, as this was not included in the sale. Commercial Offices, Computer Annexe and everything at the top of the site were replaced by Tyrefort in 2002, the IT dept moved into the tyre technical building and slowly the rest of the site was raised to the ground - mostly acquired by JLR. Other factories at Washington, Speke, Coventry, Patricroft, Inchinnan, etc (and even Goodyear's huge factory in Wolverhampton) went with them. Sports field is now warehouses, and test fleet garages are now Spitfire Industrial Park. Dunlop Chemical Products (or Dunlop Semtex as it was called then - cannot think why they changed the name.....) is now B & Q. East Drive and Chester Rd Gate became the end of the Heartlands Spine Road. Buildings on the west of the site became Wingfoot Way (a nod to Goodyear). Now what is left of the massive UK Dunlop and Goodyear organisations (called Goodyear GB Ltd) is in 1 and a bit floors of a rented building on the Birmingham Industrial Park.

Perhaps Donald Trump is right - there is something to be said for tariffs to protect local manufacturing industry? Discuss........
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Mark

Thanks for that insight into the later years of Dunlop. Growing up in Erdington, I remember how it employed so many local people—one of the major employers alongside GEC, Lucas, and ICI.

Looking at the Tyburn Road housing, I wonder if there was a deal between Dunlop and the council (or their direct labour organisation) to build those social houses. Perhaps those were the ones Dunlop mentioned.

I think we’d be in for a severe reprimand if we opened up a discussion about Trump and tariffs—or how tariffs in general affected Dunlop. The 1980s did see a lot of deindustrialisation, with manufacturing jobs moving abroad.

Our post-WWII manufacturing was built around providing jobs, with many companies more than happy to do so. There was a pride in the number of people they employed and how they supported local communities. As I’ve said, Jack Welch turned all this on its head, focusing on shareholders, high profit margins, and low employment. Many big names were effectively broken down into smaller brands.

PS on a side note, the ratio of direct staff to manual was interestingly high. I imagine it was before computing, so all the record keeping was hand manuscript.
 
I do find handwriting quite fun to look at, even the illegible stuff like off the doctor. Not that I am any good at reading it either, I am just thinking about how records and what records were kept. The high proportion of white collar staff Dunlop puzzled me at first, but then thinking of the need to keep detailed records was the driver behind it.

I have seen a few industry archives, and it always amazes me how well and how neat some of the journals, daybook and ledgers were. Page after page of perfectly formed copper plate scripts in pen and ink and not a single blot or correction in sight.

Some of the old “Bills of Quantities” would have page after page of things like 14 cubic yards of concrete at seventeen and six pence halfpenny per cubic foot, all extended out and collected.
 
Yes you are right. My handwriting was always criticised at school, and is worse now. I could never have been a clerk
 
The motorsport factory, shown as Tyre 8 on the plan in the booklet survived until 2014 when it succumbed to JLR taking over the lease and basically throwing us off the site then demolishing the factory, warehouse and offices. Production of radial car race tyres were transferred to Hanau in Germany and the motorcyle race tyres transferred to Montluçon in France.
The older historic crossply racing tyres, which were, and still are, an important part of the Motorsport business were transferred to a factory in Portugal that still had the capability to build this type of tyre. Up to 2019, the car radial tyres were still branded as Dunlop but then a corporate decision was made to change the branding to Goodyear, as it was felt with the Goodyear racing tyres made in Akron, USA, it would make sense to have the one brand identity for this activity. The motorcycle race and historic crossply race tyres (up to now) are still branded as Dunlop with all the traditional logos, and colours for the vehicles, service areas, branding etc.
 
The term "Fort Dunlop" referred to the entire site, not just the large building visible from the M6, which to everyone who worked there was known simply as 'Base Stores'. Unfortunately property developers do not take much notice of historical accuracy. Now the only tyres that are produced on the site are aircraft tyres, made by Dunlop Aircraft Tyres. There used to be another building at the top end of the site that was almost a mirror image of the Base Stores building called Commercial Offices which had a lot more decoration compared to the rather austere aspect of the former building. There are all sorts of theories why the site was called "Fort Dunlop". However Dunlop did produce a range of tyres both in UK and more importantly in France called "Dunlop Fort" from 1930's to early 1960's. It certainly was important in France as "fort" denoted strength.
 
DunlopRubberbug said:
The motorsport factory, shown as Tyre 8 on the plan in the booklet survived until 2014 when it succumbed to JLR taking over the lease and basically throwing us off the site then demolishing the factory, warehouse and offices. Production of radial car race tyres were transferred to Hanau in Germany and the motorcyle race tyres transferred to Montluçon in France.
The older historic crossply racing tyres, which were, and still are, an important part of the Motorsport business were transferred to a factory in Portugal that still had the capability to build this type of tyre. Up to 2019, the car radial tyres were still branded as Dunlop but then a corporate decision was made to change the branding to Goodyear, as it was felt with the Goodyear racing tyres made in Akron, USA, it would make sense to have the one brand identity for this activity. The motorcycle race and historic crossply race tyres (up to now) are still branded as Dunlop with all the traditional logos, and colours for the vehicles, service areas, branding etc.
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Why were the tires transferred to other European countries and kept in Birmingham?
 
Production was transferred to other European countries as (allegedly) it was easier to close factories in the UK than anywhere else, post Scargill/Thatcher. However the Grim Reaper is now reaching out to Europe too as 2 Goodyear plants in Germany will close soon. Motorsport was doomed from the point where the site lease was sold to an organisation who realised what JLR were prepared to pay for it as part of their then-expansion (they acquired the Showcase Cinema and Frankie and Bennys for a multi story car park at around the same time). Now ironically JLR are shedding loads of jobs. There is a moral in this somewhere I suppose.....
 
The same thing happened more recently. Goodyear had taken over Cooper Tire in 2021. Cooper Tire were the American owners of Avon Tyres based in Melksham, Wiltshire. Of course it was easy to predict what would happen and the Avon tyre factory was closed down at the end of 2023. Another nail in the coffin of UK manufacturing.
 
Mark Tooze said:
Production was transferred to other European countries as (allegedly) it was easier to close factories in the UK than anywhere else, post Scargill/Thatcher. However the Grim Reaper is now reaching out to Europe too as 2 Goodyear plants in Germany will close soon. Motorsport was doomed from the point where the site lease was sold to an organisation who realised what JLR were prepared to pay for it as part of their then-expansion (they acquired the Showcase Cinema and Frankie and Bennys for a multi story car park at around the same time). Now ironically JLR are shedding loads of jobs. There is a moral in this somewhere I suppose.....
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Thank you for that. However there are more and more cars on the roads and last I looked there were 4 tires per car, who is making those tires? BTW, the Margret Thatcher thing was over 40 years ago, almost half a century ago.
 
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