wide open spaces

I often see these hangers in the distance on the road between MK and Cambridge, but never like this.

Today, returning from taking sister-in-law to Stansted Airport, we detour off the main road in an attempt to get close up and personal.  Not as easy as it seems; signs warn me that I’m going to be in BIG trouble if I get too close. 

These are the Cardington Hangers, built in 1915 for the manufacture of airships.  But their big claim to fame was as the home of the R101.  When this airship crashed on its maiden overseas flight in 1930 (with more loss of life that the Hindenburg) interest in airships (and Cardington to some extent) waned.  

Then in the 1960s Hollywood came to call and the hangers - some of the largest internal spaces in Europe - found a new home as a movie lot; from Chitty Chitty Bang Bang to Batman.

Now there are modern airships under development, which probably explains the cameras, the barbed wire and the men with big dogs.

They are huge.  The hangers; not the men with big dogs.