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Dunlop Building

  • Thread starter Thread starter Wendy
  • Start date Start date
DunlopRubberbug said:
Commercial Offices. At the time, if my memory is correct, it was home to the mainframe computer system, may have been a few other departments still there, but I think some of the upper floors were out of bounds by now.
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Correct. When I started in the 80's the mainframe, data prep and buying dept were on the ground floor - upper floors were empty. At the far end was the workshop where you could get a new set of "test tyres" fitted for the cost of logging your mileage each week. The only time I ever went upstairs was when we had to attend a course on how to use the new internal telephone system. When it was demolished they "accidently" bought down half a floor in one go - it was like a bomb had gone off and it cracked the walls of the computer centre annexe building next door (we were still working in the annexe building at the time and had to be evacuated until our building was confirmed safe).
 
Mark Tooze said:
Correct. When I started in the 80's the mainframe, data prep and buying dept were on the ground floor - upper floors were empty. At the far end was the workshop where you could get a new set of "test tyres" fitted for the cost of logging your mileage each week. The only time I ever went upstairs was when we had to attend a course on how to use the new internal telephone system. When it was demolished they "accidently" bought down half a floor in one go - it was like a bomb had gone off and it cracked the walls of the computer centre annexe building next door (we were still working in the annexe building at the time and had to be evacuated until our building was confirmed safe).
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Hi Mark, You mean the 'accident' with the crane and wrecking ball?
 
DunlopRubberbug said:
Hi Mark, You mean the 'accident' with the crane and wrecking ball?
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It also involved a man on one of those little digger things with a kango-hammer end bit - he was left right on the end of the remaining bit of floor.
Do wish I had had my camera with me that day..................

This was the computer annexe building by the way - taken after Commercial Offices were demolished and a new road laid to the car park at the top end:-
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DunlopRubberbug said:
If my rusty and fading memory is correct all this happened around the time the sports field, club, bowling greens, rifle range etc were sold off?
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Yes - approximately. The club closed because (allegedly) it needed a 6-figure sum spent to re-roof it. Dunlop Hall was shut earlier when asbestos was found in it I think. Early-mid 1990s. Pictures of the computer annexe above are from just before it was demolished - we had already moved down to the old Tyre Tech building at the bottom of the site. The annexe was a wonderful building - glass walls and glass panels in the roof. We fried in the summer and froze in the winter......
 
DunlopRubberbug said:
Should have spotted the missing chimney stacks on the Boiler House - which was also being demolished. Were North Side Electricians in the basement of that building?
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Yes they were - forgot about them! We also used to have inter-factory accounting dept at the very end of the top floor but they had moved down to the main accounting offices years earlier. This was their office on the day we left the building:-
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