HOME

TheInfoList



OR:

Cardington is a village and
civil parish In England, a civil parish is a type of administrative parish used for local government. It is a territorial designation which is the lowest tier of local government. Civil parishes can trace their origin to the ancient system of parishes, w ...
in the
Borough of Bedford Bedford, or the Borough of Bedford, is a Districts of England, local government district with borough status in the United Kingdom, borough status in the ceremonial county of Bedfordshire, England. It is administered by Bedford Borough Council, ...
in Bedfordshire, England. Part of the ancient
hundred 100 or one hundred (Roman numerals, Roman numeral: C) is the natural number following 99 (number), 99 and preceding 101 (number), 101. In mathematics 100 is the square of 10 (number), 10 (in scientific notation it is written as 102). The standar ...
of Wixamtree, the settlement is best known in connection with the Cardington airship works founded by
Short Brothers Short Brothers plc, usually referred to as Shorts or Short, is an aerospace company based in Belfast, Northern Ireland. Shorts was founded in 1908 in London, and was the first company in the world to make production aeroplanes. It was particu ...
during
World War I World War I or the First World War (28 July 1914 – 11 November 1918), also known as the Great War, was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War I, Allies (or Entente) and the Central Powers. Fighting to ...
, which later became an RAF training station. However most of the former RAF station is actually in the parish of Eastcotts, as is the settlement of Shortstown, which was originally built by Short Brothers for its workers. The village of Cardington is located to the north east of Shortstown and the RAF station, and houses most of the population of the parish, which was 270 in 2005, making it one of the least populated parishes in Bedfordshire.


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. It is a Grade II listed building.


Airships, barrage balloons and RAF Cardington

Cardington became one of the major British sites involved in the development of
airship An airship, dirigible balloon or dirigible is a type of aerostat (lighter-than-air) aircraft that can navigate through the air flying powered aircraft, under its own power. Aerostats use buoyancy from a lifting gas that is less dense than the ...
s when Short Brothers bought land there to build airships for the Admiralty. They constructed a 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 Bedford is a market town in Bedfordshire, England. At the 2011 Census, the population was 106,940. Bedford is the county town of Bedfordshire and seat of the Borough of Bedford local government district. Bedford was founded at a ford (crossin ...
. Shorts also built a housing estate, opposite the site, which they named Shortstown. The airships site was
nationalised Nationalization (nationalisation in British English) is the process of transforming privately owned assets into public assets by bringing them under the public ownership of a national government or state. Nationalization contrasts with ...
in April 1919, becoming known as the Royal Airship Works. In preparation for the
R101 R101 was one of a pair of British rigid airships completed in 1929 as part of the Imperial Airship Scheme, a British government programme to develop civil airships capable of service on long-distance routes within the British Empire. It was d ...
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) was originally located at
RNAS Pulham RNAS Pulham (later RAF Pulham) was a Royal Naval Air Service (RNAS) airship station, near Pulham St Mary, south of Norwich, England. Though land was purchased by the Admiralty (United Kingdom), Admiralty in 1912 the site was not operational un ...
, Norfolk. It was dismantled there and re-erected at Cardington in 1928. After the crash of the R101, in October 1930, all work stopped in Britain on airships. Cardington then became a storage station. In 1936/1937 Cardington started building
barrage balloon A barrage balloon is a type of airborne barrage, a large uncrewed tethered balloon used to defend ground targets against aircraft attack, by raising aloft steel cables which pose a severe risk of collision with hostile aircraft, making the atta ...
s; and it became the No. 1 RAF Balloon Training Unit. For both airships and barrage balloons, Cardington manufactured its own
hydrogen Hydrogen is a chemical element; it has chemical symbol, symbol H and atomic number 1. It is the lightest and abundance of the chemical elements, most abundant chemical element in the universe, constituting about 75% of all baryon, normal matter ...
, in the Gas Factory, using the
steam reforming Steam reforming or steam methane reforming (SMR) is a method for producing syngas (hydrogen and carbon monoxide) by reaction of hydrocarbons with water. Commonly, natural gas is the feedstock. The main purpose of this technology is often hydrogen ...
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 A gas cylinder is a pressure vessel for storage and containment of gases at above atmospheric pressure. Gas storage cylinders may also be called ''bottles''. Inside the cylinder the stored contents may be in a state of compressed gas, vapor ov ...
filling and maintenance. The two airship sheds 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. From 1970, No. 2 shed was used by the Fire Research Station for large-scale fire tests in sheltered conditions which could not be carried out at their site in
Borehamwood Borehamwood (, historically also Boreham Wood) is a town in southern Hertfordshire, England, from Charing Cross. Borehamwood has a population of 36,322, and is within the London commuter belt. The town's film and TV studios are commonly know ...
, Hertfordshire. Such tests included work on sprinklers in high-rack storage, department stores and other locations, gas explosions (following the
Ronan Point Ronan Point was a 22-storey tower block in Canning Town in Newham, East London, that partially collapsed on 16 May 1968, only two months after it opened. A gas explosion blew out some load-bearing walls, causing the collapse of one entire corn ...
disaster of 1969), and reconstructions of notable fires including the Manchester Woolworth's fire of 1979. In 1972 the Fire Research Station was merged with the Building Research Station to form the
Building Research Establishment The Building Research Establishment (BRE) is a centre of building science in the United Kingdom, owned by charitable organisation the BRE Trust. It is a former Government of the United Kingdom, UK government national laboratory that was privati ...
(BRE) and in the 1980s onwards some of BRE's work in non-fire areas was done in the hangar until around 2001; this included multi-storey steel, concrete and wooden buildings which were constructed and then destructively tested within the huge space available. This shed was completely reclad for BRE in the 1990s by the Property Services Agency and its contractors and thus was looked after in comparison with the other shed. 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. A company called
Airship Industries Airship Industries was a British manufacturers of modern non-rigid airships (blimps) active under that name from 1980 to 1990 and controlled for part of that time by Alan Bond. The first company, Aerospace Developments, was founded in 1970, and ...
tried to revive the fortunes of the airship industry in the other shed in the 1980s, but the efforts ended in failure. In the 2000s decade, the site was used for the development of a new design of airship, the Skycat, by the company
Hybrid Air Vehicles Hybrid Air Vehicles (HAV) Limited is a British limited company and a British manufacturer of hybrid airships, though none have been built since the crash of its last demonstrator iNov 2017 These aircraft use both aerodynamics and lighter-than- ...
. In the 2010s the site served as a base for Hybrid Air Vehicles' Airlander 10 prototype airship.


Goodyear Blimps, 2011

In early 2011 two
Goodyear Blimp The Goodyear Blimp is any one of a fleet of commercial airships (or dirigibles) operated by the Goodyear Tire and Rubber Company, used mainly for advertising and capturing aerial views of live sporting events for television. The term blimp itse ...
s (''Spirit of Safety I'' and ''Spirit of Safety II'') were refurbished in Shed 1, prior to their deployment on a European tour promoting road safety.


Sports

Cardington is the location of the two largest and most successful
football Football is a family of team sports that involve, to varying degrees, kick (football), kicking a football (ball), ball to score a goal (sports), goal. Unqualified, football (word), the word ''football'' generally means the form of football t ...
clubs in Bedford Borough. Bedford Town F.C. compete at The New Eyrie stadium, and play in the
Southern Football League Premier Division The Southern League is a football competition featuring semi-professional clubs from East Anglia, the South and Midlands of England, and South Wales. Together with the Isthmian League and the Northern Premier League it forms levels seven and ...
. Bedford F.C. use the McMullen Park stadium, and play in the
Spartan South Midlands Football League The Spartan South Midlands Football League is an English football league covering Hertfordshire, northwest Greater London, central Buckinghamshire and southern Bedfordshire. It is a feeder to the Southern Football League or the Isthmian League, ...
Division One. Both of the football stadiums are located next to each other on Meadow Lane in Cardington. Cardington Artificial Slalom Course is an artificial whitewater
canoe slalom Canoe slalom (previously known as whitewater slalom) is a competitive sport with the aim to navigate a Spraydeck, decked canoe or kayak through a course of hanging downstream or upstream gates on Whitewater, river rapids in the fastest time pos ...
course located on the edge of Cardington next to Priory Country Park. The course was the first if its kind to be built in the UK, and hosts national canoe slalom competitions and cups. It is also used as a main training area for the Viking Kayak Club.


Notable people from Cardington

*
George Gascoigne George Gascoigne (c. 15357 October 1577) was an English poet, soldier and unsuccessful courtier. He is considered the most important poet of the early Elizabethan era, following Sir Thomas Wyatt and Henry Howard, Earl of Surrey and leading to ...
(1535–1577) – Elizabethan poet * Samuel Whitbread (1720–1796) – brewer and MP for
Bedford Bedford is a market town in Bedfordshire, England. At the 2011 Census, the population was 106,940. Bedford is the county town of Bedfordshire and seat of the Borough of Bedford local government district. Bedford was founded at a ford (crossin ...
*
John Howard John Winston Howard (born 26 July 1939) is an Australian former politician who served as the 25th prime minister of Australia from 1996 to 2007. He held office as leader of the Liberal Party of Australia. His eleven-year tenure as prime min ...
(1726–1790) – prison reformer and High Sheriff of Bedfordshire


References


External links


Cardington Timeline2001 Census – Parish Profile for Cardington134 (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
{{authority control Villages in Bedfordshire Civil parishes in Bedfordshire Borough of Bedford