Coordinates: 52°06′58″N 0°24′50″W / 52.1161°N 0.4139°W
| Cardington | |
.png)  Cardington
Cardington shown within Bedfordshire |
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| Population | 316 (2001 census) |
|---|---|
| OS grid reference | |
| Unitary authority | Bedford |
| Ceremonial county | Bedfordshire |
| Region | East |
| Country | England |
| Sovereign state | United Kingdom |
| Post town | Bedford |
| Postcode district | MK44 |
| Dialling code | 01234 |
| Police | Bedfordshire |
| Fire | Bedfordshire and Luton |
| Ambulance | East of England |
| EU Parliament | East of England |
| UK Parliament | North East Bedfordshire |
| List of places: UK • England • Bedfordshire | |
Cardington is a village and civil parish in Bedfordshire in England, best known in connection with the Cardington airship works founded by Short Brothers during World War I, which later became an RAF base. However most of the former RAF base is actually in the parish of Eastcotts, as is the settlement of Shortstown, which was originally built by Short Brothers for its workers.[1] The old village of Cardington is located to the north east of Shortstown and the RAF base, and houses most of the population of the parish, which was 270 in 2005, making it one of the least populated parishes in Bedfordshire.
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Airships, barrage balloons and RAF Cardington
Cardington became one of the major British sites involved in the development of airships when Short Brothers bought land there to build airships for the Admiralty. They constructed a 700 ft long airship hangar (the No. 1 Shed) in 1915 to enable them to build two rigid airships, the R-31 and the R-32. Some 800 people worked there in 1917, most of them travelled daily from Bedford[citation needed]. Shorts also built a housing estate, opposite the site, which they named Shortstown.
The airships site was nationalised in April 1919, becoming known as the Royal Airship Works.
In preparation for the R101 project the No. 1 shed was extended between October 1924 and March 1926; its roof was raised by 35 feet and its length increased to 812 feet. The No. 2 shed (Southern shed), which had originally been located at RNAS Pulham, Norfolk, was dismantled in 1928 and re-erected at Cardington.
After the crash of the R101, in October 1930, all work stopped in Britain on airships. Cardington then became a storage base.
In 1936 / 1937 Cardington started building barrage balloons; and it became the No. 1 RAF Balloon Training Unit.
For both airships and barrage balloons, Cardington manufactured its own hydrogen, in the Gas Factory, using the steam reforming process. In 1948 the Gas Factory became 279 MU (Maintenance Unit), RAF Cardington; and then, in 1955, 217 MU. 217 MU, RAF Cardington, produced all the gases used by the Royal Air Force until its closure in April 2000; including gas cylinder filling and maintenance.
The two airship hangars ceased being part of the RAF Cardington site in the late 1940s and they were put to other uses. The fence was moved, so they were outside the main RAF Cardington site.
For many years until around 2001, one of the hangars was used by the Building Research Establishment as a whole building test facility for the Cardington tests. Here, multi-storey steel, concrete and wooden buildings were constructed and then destructively tested within the huge space available. This hangar was repainted and looked after in comparison with the other hangar.
The buildings tests were mentioned during the course of the BBC series "The Conspiracy Files" as evidence in the controversy surrounding the collapse of World Trade Center Building 7 on 11 September 2001 [1]
A company called Airship Industries tried to revive the fortunes of the airship industry in the other shed in the 1980s,[citation needed] but the efforts ended in failure. The site is currently being used for the development of a new design of airship, the Skycat, by the company Hybrid Air Vehicles. [2]
In 1993 planning permission was granted for construction of theatrical stagings and the site was used for rehearsals by musicians including Paul McCartney[2], U2, Rod Stewart and AC/DC [3].
Cardington Artificial Slalom Course (CASC)
Sites of interest
The church of St. Mary the Virgin has pieces dating from the 12th century, although the church itself was mostly rebuilt between 1898 and 1902.
Film and television
The hangars for the R100 and R101 airships still stand in Cardington, as does the Headquarters Building. In 1968 some scenes for Chitty Chitty Bang Bang were filmed at Cardington Sheds.[3] Also during the 1960s, much of the film Those Magnificent Men in Their Flying Machines was shot in the vicinity of the village. In 1971 the sheds appeared in the First World War war film Zeppelin starring Michael York.
Hangar 2 has recently been leased to Warner Bros. and used as a studio for film and television productions, including the 2005 film Batman Begins.[3] Dark Knight, the sequel to Batman Begins was filmed in hangar 2 in 2008. The film Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow was filmed at Cardington in 2004.[4]
Rihanna filmed parts of her music video for 'Shut up and drive' there.
Notable people from Cardington
- Samuel Whitbread (1720-1796) – Brewer and MP for Bedford
- John Howard (1726-1790) – Prison Reformer, High Sheriff of Bedfordshire
References
- ^ "Parish map Eastcotts Parish Boundaries". http://www.bedford.gov.uk/GetResource.aspx?file=boundaries.pdf Parish map.
- ^ Little, Reg (2007-10-11). "Airship could serve Oxford-Cambridge". Oxford Times. http://www.theoxfordtimes.net/search/display.var.1754135.0.airship_could_serve_oxfordcambridge.php. Retrieved 2008-03-05.
- ^ a b "Chitty Chitty Bang Bang" (PDF). http://www.eetb.org.uk/doclib/Lights,%20Camera,%20Action!.pdf.
- ^ "Film Locations". http://www.wheredidtheyfilmthat.co.uk/location.php?loc_id=588.
External links
- Cardington Timeline
- 2001 Census - Parish Profile for Cardington
- 134 (Bedford) Sqn - Air Training Corps (On former RAF Cardington Site)
- St. Mary the Virgin Church in the Corpus of Romanesque Sculpture in Britain and Ireland
- The Airship Heritage Trust - Cardington Sheds
- Many photos of Cardington Airship Hangars
This entry is from Wikipedia, the leading user-contributed encyclopedia. It may not have been reviewed by professional editors (see full disclaimer)
