Left is a photo of Daisy Exley (nee Bird) a long term resident of Shortstown who first arrived in our village with her family in 1925 when her father began work at the Royal Airship Works. It is not known what her father did at the RAW but as the family lived on The Highway where most of the senior staff were posted we can assume he had quite a responsible position. Daisy was 14 when she arrived in Shortstown and in 1928 at the age of 17 she herself began work on the airships joining her mother and siblings across the road from where she lived. During the R101 years Daisy was employed in the Fabric Shop working on the outer cover of the airship. According to an interview she gave to the Bedford Record in 1976 she thoroughly enjoyed her time working there and got to know all of the crew. Understandably she is quoted as saying that she “cried her heart out” on hearing the news of the crash in 1930. After the crash she along with hundreds of employees was made redundant when the airship programme was halted.

However she was not quite finished with the station yet and from 1936 to 1945 again worked in the Fabric Shop rising to become an inspector. During these years Cardington was the main centre for the production of balloons/ parachutes, dummy decoy vehicles, and dinghies and Daisy inspected all of these. At this time according to electoral records Daisy was still in Shortstown but had moved to East Square where she was still living at the time of her newspaper interview (in November 1976). After the war ended Daisy again found herself redundant as the work at Cardington changed but 4 years later in 1949 she was back this time working in the Royal Aircraft Establishment researching and testing the new hovercrafts. Daisy remained working at Cardington until Oct 1976 when she retired and in later years moved to Elstow. A true Cardington veteran.