Other · England

Cardington Airfield (Bellway Homes development)

Name: Cardington Airfield (Bellway Homes development)
Address: Cardington, England

Imported, unreviewedRedevelopedUnder constructionCardington, England

1000-home housing project on former airport (closed 2000), under construction by Bellway Homes; peer redevelopments confirm strategy. · summary, model-written

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Site profile3 elements · what this retrofit is built with · tap a chip for the evidence

Finance and pipeline

Retrofit in the pipeline

This site: …under construction newtypes-extraction · all sites with this

Strategy

Redeveloped

This site: 1000 new homes on the site record · all sites with this

New use

Housing

This site: …new_use field newtypes-extraction · all sites with this

All elements and lists · Trends

Now

Status	Under constructionnewtypes-extraction reported
Strategy	Redevelopment, under constructionWikipedia no source
New uses	housingWikipedia no source
What is there now	1000 new homes on the sitenewtypes-extraction reported
Redeveloper	Bellway Homesnewtypes-extraction reported

Site context

Other atlas sites nearby	2 within 10 km, 2 within 25 km: 134 Squadron Air Training Corps headquarters, Cardington Airfield (0.0 km); Northern part of Cardington Airfield (DSA) (0.0 km)computed

Summary, model-written

Cardington Airfield (closed 2000) is redeveloping into 1000 housing units under Bellway Homes. Site was originally an airport operated by Short Brothers, now under construction. No parcel or deal details provided.

Why. Matches peer redevelopments (e.g., Park Forest Plaza, Muskegon Mall) that closed 1996-2004 and adopted housing strategy. Context shows two nearby airfield sites (0km) within 10km.

Where it stands. Status: under construction. Verified as draft data. No planning approvals or community feedback in record.

For a planner

Adjacent airfield cluster (2 sites within 10km) may inform regional infrastructure planning.

For a developer

Peer projects (5 examples) confirm housing redevelopments on closed airports are feasible. No cost or timeline data available.

What we do not know yet

No parcel boundaries, deal terms, or planning history provided. Original developer (Short Brothers) not linked to current project. Narrative excerpt describes historical airship use but does not inform current redevelopment.

Generated by qwen3-30b-a3b-64k:latest on Dell 5820 RTX 3090 (Ollama, qwen3-30b-a3b) from the fields, parcels, deals and context layers on this page, with no outside knowledge. It is regenerated when the record changes and has not been checked by a person. How it is made.

Similar sites

Park Forest Plaza, Park Forest, IL · Malls · closed 1996; same strategy: redevelop
Muskegon Mall, Muskegon, MI · Malls · closed 2001; same strategy: redevelop
Prestonwood Mall, Dallas, TX · Malls · closed 2004; same strategy: redevelop
Crossroads Mall, Boulder, CO · Malls · closed 2004; same strategy: redevelop

Elsewhere on the web

Search images: Google · Bing · Commons · references: ULI case studies · Google Scholar

History and original facts

Closed	2000newtypes-extraction
Original developer	Short Brothersnewtypes-extraction reported
Notes	Draft from Wikipedia, model-extracted, unreviewed: Former RAF Cardington site is being redeveloped by Bellway Homes into 1000 new homes.

Not yet recorded: acres, GLA, year opened, retrofit year. Know it? Tell us.

Background

Cardington Airfield, previously RAF Cardington, is a former Royal Air Force station in Bedfordshire, England, with a long and varied history, particularly in relation to airships and balloons. The station was formerly part of the civil parish of Eastcotts, before that was abolished on 1 April 2019. == History == === Construction under the Short brothers === The site started life as a private venture when aircraft manufacturing company Short Brothers bought land there to build airships for the Admiralty. It constructed a 700-foot-long (210 m) Airship hangar (the No. 1 Shed) in 1915 to enable it to build two rigid airships, the R-31 and the R-32.

Excerpt from Wikipedia (authors and history), CC BY-SA 4.0. May be older than the record above.

Timeline

2000 Closed

Sources

Cardington Airfield · CC BY-SA 4.0
1 quoted sentence
Cardington Airfield

Cite

Retrofit Atlas (2026). "Cardington Airfield (Bellway Homes development), Cardington, England." Record n-44c0c2fc39, imported, unreviewed. Built on the public Retrofitting Suburbia map (Dunham-Jones and Williamson) and the sources listed. https://retrofitatlas.org/other/england/cardington-cardington-airfield-bellway-homes-development/ (accessed 2026-10-21).

BibTeX

@misc{retrofitatlas_cardingtoncardingtonairfieldbellwayhomes,
  title = {Cardington Airfield (Bellway Homes development), Cardington, England},
  author = {{Retrofit Atlas}},
  howpublished = {\url{https://retrofitatlas.org/other/england/cardington-cardington-airfield-bellway-homes-development/}},
  year = {2026},
  note = {Record n-44c0c2fc39, release 2026-10-21, tier: draft. Built on the Retrofitting Suburbia map (Dunham-Jones and Williamson) and the sources listed on the record. Accessed 2026-10-21}
}

How to cite, versioning

Link back

Paste on a project page: <a href="https://retrofitatlas.org/other/england/cardington-cardington-airfield-bellway-homes-development/">Cardington Airfield (Bellway Homes development) on Retrofit Atlas</a>

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Record

n-44c0c2fc39 · JSON · source last edited 2026-10-18 · reviewed by a person: not yet

Corrections

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More in England

134 Squadron Air Training Corps headquarters, Cardington AirfieldCardington, England · 1953Redeveloped · Reinhabited · new Squadron headquarters has been built Acton Golf ClubActon, EnglandRedeveloped · redeveloped for housing Bamford International Farm Machinery siteUttoxeter, EnglandRedeveloped · Demolished buildings, site yet to be redeveloped.BreweryRomford, England · 2001Redeveloped · a shopping and leisure centre Chiswick Class MA conversionChiswick, EnglandReinhabitation, approved · A secondary mews location proved decisive as the Inspector found that…Co-operative department storeDartford, EnglandRedeveloped

Site profile3 elements · what this retrofit is built with · tap a chip for the evidence

Nownewtypes-extraction

Site contextpublic APIs, see origins; tract and county figures sit at different geographies and are not directly comparable

Summary, model-writtenwritten from this record only, not reviewed by a person

For a planner

For a developer

What we do not know yet

Similar sitescomputed on size, era, strategy, status, type and place

Elsewhere on the websearch links

History and original factsWikipedia

BackgroundWikipedia, CC BY-SA, shortened

Timelinesources below

Sources1 sources