# cardington hangers and the story of R101...july 2010



## tommo (Jul 11, 2010)

had a nice walk round the hangers with klempner69 and skeleton key, great day and a fantastic location cheers guys



*HISTORY :*

taken from the air ship heritage site http://www.aht.ndirect.co.uk/index.html there where 3 big air ship hangers built in the uk, one at cardington, howden and pulham but only cardington survived



> The story starts not with the village but with the Shorts Brothers Engineering Company. Having won a contract for the construction of an airship in 1916, the original design team had set up offices in a private house in Hampstead, London. In September of 1916 they decided to move to Bedford, choosing this market town for its sufficiency of high grade light engineering works and its population of about 35,000. Outside the town, at Putnoe, was a stretch of farmland being used as an aerodrome for the Royal Flying Corps as part of the United Kingdom's defence network against the Zeppelins. Within sight of Putnoe was, and still is, the village of Cardington.
> 
> The man who headed up the enterprise for the Shorts Company was a young man by the name of Claude Lipscomb. At 29, Claude had already served his apprenticeship at Woolwich Arsenal but had joined Shorts at the outbreak of the war in 1914 attracted by the prospect of technological advancement in the new aviation world. Claude set up his first drawing office in a loft of the coach repair shop in Bedford. Having been attacked by Zeppelin Raiders that September and with the threat of the new Super Zeppelins, agreement was reached to develop our own ships. With its gentle prevailing wind, the site of farmland south west of Bedford and the site of Cardington was chosen.
> 
> ...



also found a great video inside No1 shed http://www.google.co.uk/imgres?imgurl=http://www.britishpathe.com/media/ThumbStills/00000000/00034000/00034427/00000005.jpg&imgrefurl=http://www.britishpathe.com/results.php%3Fsearch%3Dhot-air&usg=__YZjp10B_tGVw3xLs6GvTZ8YNVA4=&h=96&w=120&sz=5&hl=en&start=133&um=1&itbs=1&tbnid=OYcJhV8-1wa5OM:&tbnh=70&tbnw=88&prev=/images%3Fq%3Dcardington%2Bhangers%2Bbedford%26start%3D126%26um%3D1%26hl%3Den%26sa%3DN%26ndsp%3D21%26tbs%3Disch:1

[nomedia]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gdPrUBkMgdE[/nomedia]



also was used by take that in may 2009 for rehearsals before there uk tour


----------



## tommo (Jul 11, 2010)

*the out side*

*on with the site*


----------



## tommo (Jul 11, 2010)

*the inside*

On with the inside

me in the middle for size


























tin of old army grease


















































cheers for looking


----------



## bonecollector (Jul 11, 2010)

This is awesome mate.
Would love to play a gig in there.


----------



## klempner69 (Jul 11, 2010)

*Excellant day out*

Lovely shots mate with great history too..I love all the old bits of film on youtube showing this place plus airship.I must add a big thank you to Skeleton Key for giving up his day off to show us this gem of a place,one I have wanted to see for eons of time.Good weather,good company,great tin of Fosters at the end of the trip!


----------



## tommo (Jul 11, 2010)

a can of foster's on the tower was wicked lol and great to catch up on the history, i wlll go through my pics and see what they are like if they are ok will pop a report up in the week


----------



## skeleton key (Jul 12, 2010)

t_o_m_m_o having just read your report im left with the feeling ive just watched a programe about the hangers on the discovery channel or somthing 
Guys thanks in return had a great day 
Just a few gantry pics




























A welcome cool breeze as its like an airless oven up there 

Thanks again guys

SK


----------



## chelle (Jul 12, 2010)

*cardington*

Looks like a good day was had by all...........shame take that had to marr the place


----------



## klempner69 (Jul 12, 2010)

Those gantry shots make me feel quite giddy...I wont be returning to emulate these pics
Nicely shot though fella


----------



## King Al (Jul 12, 2010)

Super pics guys, those hangers are huge!! I would love an air ship:v_SPIN:


----------



## skeleton key (Jul 12, 2010)

*Not for kids*

It was truely so hot up there and i made my self as light as possible going up.
I even had a little celebration when i got back on solid ground

________:jiggy::arghh::jiggy::arghh::jiggy::arghh::jiggy:________________________________







Sorry couldnt help myself  

layz AKA kaiser u were my insperation LOL 


SK


----------



## The Kaiser (Jul 14, 2010)

HAHA!











skeleton key said:


> It was truely so hot up there and i made my self as light as possible going up.
> I even had a little celebration when i got back on solid ground
> 
> ________:jiggy::arghh::jiggy::arghh::jiggy::arghh::jiggy:________________________________




Hope you put it back... the piano I mean!


----------



## King Al (Jul 14, 2010)

insert wolf whistle here >>>

:jiggy::jiggy::jiggy:


----------



## klempner69 (Jul 14, 2010)

Just got round to adding a few of my Polaroids..not too dissimilar to Tommo`s.

Incredible steelwork



Looking up into the gods



Starstruck



More steel



Cranked up the exposure a bit



Deliberately over exposed,but effective




That`l do...for my full set on Cardington,see below.

http://news.webshots.com/album/578145391mSUQEy


----------



## fluffy5518 (Jul 15, 2010)

Terrific set of photo's there guys !!What a fantastic location and judging by Skeleton Keys pics definately as good as its cracked up to be 
PS Must remember not to view new posts whilst eating !!


----------



## Foxylady (Jul 16, 2010)

fluffy5518 said:


> PS Must remember not to view new posts whilst eating !!


LOL! Quite a shock to the system! 

Fantastic pics, guys...fabulous place and history. Great work, y'all.


----------



## Munchh (Jul 16, 2010)

skeleton key said:


> It was truely so hot up there and i made my self as light as possible going up.
> I even had a little celebration when i got back on solid ground
> 
> ________:jiggy::arghh::jiggy::arghh::jiggy::arghh::jiggy:________________________________
> ...



LOL, I'd have been a bit concerned about the lid slamming shut unexpectedly 

Nice one SK


----------



## Danny Boi (Jul 19, 2010)

Dude I am sure that I worked here last summer!! I ocasionally work for a friends company putting up marquees. There was an aviation reasarch team we errected a marquee for to do some kind of presintation in, and I am 99.999% sure it was directly next to the second hanger. We had to go through various security checks as part of the hangers are used as film studios. (There were Gothem City Police SWAT vans lined up along the side, how cool!!) I will dig out the pics I took while there and also try to confirm it is the same place. I am unsure as I am not familiar with the area at all. 
Also,
I remember being amazed by a HUGE building we passed a couple of mins before arriveing at the hangers.
It was a derelict building, a kind of mansion, but really big, all on it's own with no other buildings around it at all. 

If I am correct and this is the same place, did you happen to notice this place? If so , any idea what it is??

Great pics BTW


----------



## klempner69 (Jul 19, 2010)

*Mansion*

Danny,I think the mansion you mention is the old original hotel built to take potential passengers for the R101..it all stopped when the airship crashed..at the front is the date in roman numerals 1917..now its being converted to hutches!


----------



## tommo (Jul 19, 2010)

hi danny and welcome to dp, this must be the same place as the other hanger was used to film parts of batman, some pics would be great if u have any



also found this pic, the site and discription says cardington, but its not........the hanger looks different on the roof section and the doors open differently, to me this must be the one at pulham as howden sheds where twin sheds built together


----------



## klempner69 (Jul 19, 2010)

Great find..wonder if this hangar predates the ones at Cardington?


----------



## tommo (Jul 19, 2010)

klempner69 said:


> Great find..wonder if this hangar predates the ones at Cardington?



all my info here stu turns out one of the sheds at cardington was from pulham in the first place

http://www.aht.ndirect.co.uk/sheds/index.html


----------



## skeleton key (Jul 20, 2010)

Danny Boi said:


> Dude I am sure that I worked here last summer!! I ocasionally work for a friends company putting up marquees. There was an aviation reasarch team we errected a marquee for to do some kind of presintation in, and I am 99.999% sure it was directly next to the second hanger. We had to go through various security checks as part of the hangers are used as film studios. (There were Gothem City Police SWAT vans lined up along the side, how cool!!) I will dig out the pics I took while there and also try to confirm it is the same place. I am unsure as I am not familiar with the area at all.
> Also,
> I remember being amazed by a HUGE building we passed a couple of mins before arriveing at the hangers.
> It was a derelict building, a kind of mansion, but really big, all on it's own with no other buildings around it at all.
> ...


[ame]http://www.derelictplaces.co.uk/main/showthread.php?t=15355[/ame]

SK


----------

