RAF Hooton Park

RAF Hooton Park
Hangars at RAF Hooton Park in 1953
IATA: none ICAO: none
Summary
Airport type	Military
Location	Wirral Peninsula, Cheshire
Built	1917
In use	40 years
Elevation AMSL	30 ft / 9 m
Coordinates	53°18′11″N 02°56′34″W / 53.30306°N 2.94278°W / 53.30306; -2.94278 (RAF Hooton Park)
Map
RAF Hooton Park Former location of RAF Hooton Park in Cheshire
Runways
Direction Length Surface ft m 15/33 6,000 1,829 Concrete
Statistics
Battles/Conflicts World War II
The airfield is now under civilian ownership.

RAF Hooton Park, on the Wirral Peninsula, Cheshire, was a Royal Air Force station originally built for the Royal Flying Corps in 1917 as a training aerodrome for pilots in World War I. During the early/mid-1930s, it was one of the two airfields (with Liverpool Speke) handling scheduled services for the Merseyside region. Hooton Park was home to No. 610 (County of Chester) Squadron and, post World War II, to No. 611 (West Lancashire) and No. 663 (AOP) Squadron.

The airfield closed in 1957 after the disbandment of the Royal Auxiliary Air Force, but the three pairs of Belfast Truss hangars erected in 1917 survived the closure. The site was bought by Vauxhall Motors, who built their Vauxhall Ellesmere Port plant there, which today produces the Vauxhall Astra. A small remaining section of the airfield site is now owned and managed by The Hooton Park Trust. The hangars are also home to The Griffin Trust and an aircraft preservation society named The Aeroplane Collection. Another part of the old airfield, including a length of the old paved runway, perimeter track and the apron used to park Meteor jet fighters, remains in the ownership of The Naylor Trust. A Second World War B1 hangar is also on this site.

In 1070 William the Conqueror granted the lands of Hooton to Adam de Aldithly. Eventually they passed to the Stanley family through a series of marriages. After the Battle of Bosworth, Hooton had a new hall and the first Lord Derby in Lancashire. A second half-timbered hall was built in 1488.