Rootes Aircraft Factory Speke WW2

[layerb]

Hi Allen, my step-father used to have go on trial flights from both Speke & Burtonwood.  The Self-sealing fuel tanks were the project he spent most time on, but there were others as well.  Sometimes he had to travel to other US air bases.  This looks like it might tie in with fitting parts to exisitng aircraft.

Many thanks for the info.

[garstonite]

Layerb....the best Barbeque Sauce you have ever tasted was made by the black GI Chefs at Burtonwood ....one GI used to go to the "Duck" in Garston for a pint and sell it to the lads and he never ever had enough to sell...everybody loved it...he sold all kinds...beer / spirits / cigis etc..all fom the boot of his car...totally illegal of course...he must have made a fortune...allan

[Heyesie]

Layerb....the best Barbeque Sauce you have ever tasted was made by the black GI Chefs at Burtonwood ....one GI used to go to the "Duck" in Garston for a pint and sell it to the lads and he never ever had enough to sell...everybody loved it...he sold all kinds...beer / spirits / cigis etc..all fom the boot of his car...totally illegal of course...he must have made a fortune...allan

And they call us Scousers oppertunists , amongst other things

[BILL.Y]

when I was a kid I can remember it all being camouflaged in paint.....

Just to add a snippet to this:  the roads leading to the factory were also painted with green and black camouflage paint!

[liverpool annie]

Hi,

My husband's father used to work there. It later became Dunlops.

Just a little aside from all this macho talk .... !  I got my first school tennis racket there at Dunlops ... in the seconds shop .... no wonder I was no good at tennis !! 

[MissM]

Sadly I haven't been in Rootschat for a while and missed this little chat about Rootes later Dunlops!  The original factory was taken over by the airport sadly, as is most of the open land we had in Speke. The sports field suffered the same fate recently but the patrons moved into the Fox Hotel next door and it is now called 'The Dunnies'!

I'm sure I have copies of a photo or two of the inside of Dunlops somewhere in my files so if anyone is still interested, let me know and I'll dig them out and scan them.  I think they were originally out of a newspaper.  I also have the three books out on Speke, 2 by David Paul and 1 by Tom Whatmore which I could scan if required.  Of course I would have to check copyright rules first.... ;-)
 
I worked in Lockheeds in the 80's and we made precision hydraulics including the undercarriage for the Red Arrows but I don't remember there ever being a connection with Dunlops.

For those of you with memories of your time in Speke, please pop in to my local history website at www.spekeliverpool.co.uk and share your memories with us in the Guestbook.  There are many pages of other people's comments too if you have a few hours to spare!

Looking after the website has been keeping me busy but I can see I'm going to be busy now looking out some photos!

[COMEONFRANK]

Thanks for your memories Annie and Bill, if you have any photographs MissM I would be very grateful, if there is a prob with copyright maybe you could attach them in a personal message.

Thanks Paul

[MissM]

Hi Paul

Sorry it's taken me so long to find these photos of Rootes.  I have so many files to go through!!

They are not good copies as they were originally obtained years ago by the local history group who visited the Records Office in Liverpool and photocopied anything they found about Speke!

I have photographed them rather than scanned them as I don't think they will get much better than this but if you have any questions about them or I can clarify anything, please just ask.

I'm not sure what size to post them so I'll try one first and go from there.

Lynne

[MissM]

Right!  Bit too big so I'll shrink the rest slightly!