Qualla: RAF Hooton Park

RAF Hooton Park: Introduction

Mon, 25 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Mike in Macc, CC BY-SA 3.0. There is no airfield left at Hooton Park, not really - just three remarkable timber-roofed hangars built in 1917 and surrounded by car-plant sheds. But take off from any Wirral airfield today and you are flying out of the shadow of this place. Sopwith biplanes trained pilots here for the Western Front. Spitfires of 610 Squadron lifted off from these meadows for the Battle of Britain. Meteor jet fighters lined the apron in the early 1950s. When the RAF Auxiliary squadrons disbanded in 1957 the airfield was sold to Vauxhall Motors, who tarmacked over most of it for a car factory - but a campaign by aviation enthusiasts saved the original 1917 hangars from demolition in the late 1990s. They are now Grade II* listed, three double-bay Belfast-truss hangars surviving as a group, the only such ensemble left in Britain.

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Image: Mike in Macc | CC BY-SA 3.0

RAF Hooton Park: Belfast in Cheshire

Mon, 25 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit RuthAS, CC BY-SA 3.0. The War Department needed pilots faster than the Royal Flying Corps could train them. In 1917 they requisitioned the Hooton Hall estate - racecourse, polo ground, the lot - and built one single and three double hangars at the eastern edge of the racecourse infield. The roofs were...

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Image: RuthAS | CC BY-SA 3.0

RAF Hooton Park: A Gambling Hall and the Banker's Tower

Mon, 25 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Daviessimo, CC BY-SA 3.0. The estate had its own complicated story. Hooton was granted in 1070 by William the Conqueror to Adam de Aldithly, and passed through marriage to the Stanley family - the future Earls of Derby. Their third hall, built in 1778 in the Italianate style, was sold in 1850 to cover gam...

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Image: Daviessimo | CC BY-SA 3.0

RAF Hooton Park: Liverpool's First Airport

Mon, 25 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Rept0n1x, CC BY-SA 3.0. After the war the airfield went back to grass. In 1927 an aviation enthusiast named G. H. Dawson bought the site and hosted an air pageant that became the founding event of the Liverpool and District Aero Club. For three years - 1930 to 1933 - Hooton Park was officially Merseysid...

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Image: Rept0n1x | CC BY-SA 3.0

RAF Hooton Park: Battle of Britain Squadron

Mon, 25 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit RuthAS, CC BY-SA 3.0. No. 610 (County of Chester) Squadron was formed at Hooton Park in 1936. The original pilots paid for their own private flying lessons to qualify - one observer said he had never seen so many Rolls-Royce cars in one place. The squadron flew bombers at first, then Hurricanes, then ...

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Image: RuthAS | CC BY-SA 3.0

RAF Hooton Park: Saving the Hangars

Mon, 25 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Dave Bevis, CC BY-SA 2.0. When the auxiliary squadrons disbanded in March 1957 the airfield closed. The Cheshire Show used the runways until 1977. Shell Research tested cars at high speed on what was left of the concrete. In 1960 Vauxhall Motors bought the eastern section and built the Ellesmere Port plan...

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Image: Dave Bevis | CC BY-SA 2.0