One man's verdict on Fort Dunlop...

I live in South Australia so don't get the implication of what's happening at Fort Dunlop. I worked in my own business from 1965 until I left England in 1983. My recollection of Fort Dunlop was of a very successful tyre manufacturer. I actually worked as a sub-contract plumber on one of the many factory upgrades in about 1965/6. One day I had one of the first percussion drills ever to be made, I believe it was a Hilti, in it's own bright orange box. I started to lay out all the pipework I was to attach to the walls and pillars running down the middle of a huge warehouse. There was one other person in the room, from Dunlop, supervising. I tried to start the drill for bracketing the pipes and found there was no power, so this supervisor told me the switch was on an outside wall just outside the external doorway, I walked over, switched on the power and walked back, no one was around, but my drill, including its bright orange case with accessories and wall plugs had disappeared. I reported it to the security people who admitted it would never be found as there were hundreds of hiding places around the factory and it may lay dormant for ages before being brought out. That was my wonderful experience of Fort Dunlop, a job where I had to use hammer and hand drills to make the holes for the screws.