Pannal village and Dunlopillo

I said I would tell you about Dunlopillo formerly Bintex built on farm fields and allotments had operated independently from 1938 to 1949. The owner, a Mr Binns (hence the company name) had invented a latex foam process which was similar to that developed by Dunlop but after the Japanese invasion of Malaya the raw rubber on which the process depended could no longer be obtained. Incidentally, my husband's great great grandfather John Smith, was Curator of the Royal Kew Gardens 1864-86, during the period when the first rubber seedlings were grown at Kew and they were then taken by one of the young Kew gardeners to Ceylon where they formed the basis of the first of the great rubber plantations.   Grandfather's name appeared in the famous book The Weeping Wood by Vicki Baum all about the rubber plantation. Bintex was called upon to do other work of national importance and undertook the manufacture and assembly of parts for radar equipment. Huts were built to extend the production area and women part-time workers were recruited from the surrounding areas. After the war ended Bintex Ltd., reverted to its original business, but it was not long before Dunlop was expressing an interest in their activities. This culminated in a takeover in 1949 with a change of name to Dunlopillo. Then in 1960, a decision was made to relocate the Dunlopillo Headquarters to Pannal and a new office block was built the following year to accommodate the increased number of staff. The company flourished and with a total site area of 178 acres and in the mid 1980s with a staff of 440 people this had become a large industrial unit in relation to the size of the village itself.  I well remember the Annual Gala Day when all the children of employees, many from the village, were invited to take part in the sports and events and a well known personality was invited to open the Gala. One year it was Jimmy Saville and I was coming out of playgroup held in Pannal Memorial Institute when he spotted me and chased me down the road shouting Now then, now then, now then. Not a pleasant experience as he was not a nice man. There was an active cricket team and football was also played on the five acre sports field with its pavilion well used. There were good years for the company then the name changed to Dunlop and there was a management take over and the company struggled in later years which culminated in a complete shutdown and it was sold. Eventually it fell into the hands of Forward Investments (the Ward Bros) and is now a number of units open to the public one of which is a cafe named Rumbles and there is also a concrete batching plant at the rear of the premises. The question is will these remain or are other plans afoot?