Couple with family connection to Bedford's Cardington Hangars come home

A couple who moved to a new development near the historic Cardington Hangars have a family connection to the famous buildings.

Not only did Tony Burton’s grandmother Elsie Goodship work at the hangars back in the day, sewing the airbags that were part of the inner construction of an airship – but his wife Linda had distant relatives who worked there too.

The couple moved to their new home on Ashberry Homes’ New Cardington Gate development in Shortstown, at the former RAF Cardington site, in August.

As most Bedford Today readers will know, airships were built in the iconic hangars in the 1920s and the ill-fated R101 airship, which crashed in France on its first overseas voyage, was built at Cardington.

The disaster in October 1930 killed 48 of the 54 people on board, and Tony, 74, recalls his mum telling him she went to school with children whose fathers died in the tragedy.

Poignantly, streets on the new development have been named after people who died in the R101 disaster. Tony and Linda’s home is on a street named in honour of Hugh Christopher Mason, who was assistant coxswain on the airship.

Linda, 72, said: “We love living near the hangars – they are part of our family history. We were pleased when we heard about the street names. It’s a tribute to them to have these roads named after them.”

Today, Hangar Two is home to Cardington Studios, where numerous blockbuster movies including The Dark Knight, Star Wars and Inception have been filmed over the years.

And Tony and Linda admit they like to peer over at it to see if anything exciting is happening, as they walk their Jack Russell, Bob, past the site.

The couple moved to their new home to be nearer their daughter and grandson, having both previously lived in the area before.

Tony grew up in Bedford and Linda moved there when she was a teenager. They met and married and lived in nearby Cotton End briefly before moving further afield.