Landscape record 2871/1/3 - Landscape Park and Gardens at Hooton Hall

<1> de Figueiredo P & Treuherz J, 1988, Cheshire Country Houses (Book). SCH785.

Former Deer park and gardens for Hooton Hall. In 1802 Repton produced a landscape scheme for Sir Thomas Stanley, owner of Hooton Hall.
In 1850 Hooton was bought by R.C Naylor. In 1854 Naylor employed James K Colling to remodel the house in Italianate style, including extensive extensions. Gardens were laid out by W.A. Nesfield. Colling also desinged the Hooton estate Church, St. Pauls, situated by the original Wyatt lodges and entrance.

<2> Beckett, Matthew, 2017, Lost Heritage. Englands Lost Country Houses (Web Site). SCH8282.

R.C Naylor (a Liverpool Banker) bought the house and estate from the Stanleys and made extensive improvements to thouse and grounds including a racecourse and polo field.
In 1875 the Manchester Ship canal cut through the Hooton estate and Naylor relocated to his Nottinghamshire estate.

The racecourse was opened to the public and held regular meetings, closing at the beginning of the 1st world war.

House and ground requisitioned by the army and barracks erected in the grounds. An airfield was developed on the site of the racecourse. House was demolished in 1932 and airfield remained in military ownership until 1957.

<3> See map for surveyor, c.1837-51, Cheshire Tithe Maps and Awards, EDT 245/2 (Maps and Plans). SCH3266.

Tithe map c.1849 shows park, pleasure ground surrounding house, stables and walled gardens. A number of different access routes thoughout the grounds are marked, including a long drive towards the surviving Wyatt Lodge House and gates at Chester Road (c1788). GIS polygon created from area shown on Tithe map and later mapping as being the wider Hooton Estate.

<4> Bluesky International Ltd, 2010, 2010 Bluesky Survey (Aerial Photograph). SCH5444.

Most of the deer park area now occupied by Vauxhall Motors and the Hooton Park Airfield. Walled garden survives and some areas to the south west of the site of Hooton Hall now farmland. Areas of open ground and woodland survive on the edges of the Vauxhall and Hooton Airfield site.

<5> Ordnance Survey, 1881-2, Ordnance Survey County Series (Epoch 1) 6 inch to 1 mile - Cheshire (Maps and Plans). SCH2474.

1 st edition 6 inch map shows shaded area of the wider Hooton Estate.

<6> Cheshire Gardens Trust, 2011 onwards, Research and Recording Report (Report). SCH6655.

A medieval deer park that became the seat of the Stanley family who had three successive houses, the last designed by Samuel Wyatt in 1778. Humphry Repton was commissioned to produce a Red Book for Hooton in 1802. His designs were realised in part. Following Sir William Stanley Massey Stanley’s bankruptcy, the Hall was sold to R C Naylor in 1849. He substantially extended the Hall to the designs of J C Colling, had a parterre laid out to the design of W A Nesfield, developed a racecourse in the park and sailed his yacht from the Mersey shore. The opening of the Manchester Ship Canal in 1894 curtailed access to the Mersey and Naylor went to live elsewhere. In 1914 the Hall and park were requisitioned by the army, the park used for training and the Hall for the accommodation of officers. In 1916 the park began to be developed as an airfield with a runway and associated buildings. The Hall was left in poor repair and demolished in 1935. The site was used as a 2nd WW airfield and remained a base till 1957. In 1962 Vauxhall Motors developed much of the site as a car plant, served by the M53 which initially opened in 1968. The Hooton Park Trust formed in 2000, leased the WWI aircraft hangers. Some of the woodland on the south and east boundaries of the park form the Rivacre Valley Local Nature Reserve.

Principal remaining features of the designed landscape (as observed from accessible land)
Hooton Lodge with screen wall and gates by Samuel Wyatt, Grade II*
Church of St Paul by J K Colling, 1858 – 62, Grade II*
Hooton Park farmhouse, Grade II
Home farm buildings including a barn
Gardener’s House
Walled kitchen garden walls
Former stables and carriage house
Length of park boundary wall of locally made brick with sandstone coping
Part of tree belt to frontage of former Hall and to park boundary. By Rivacre valley
Stone bridge on Rivacre Lane, B5132
Boundary bank in Clayhill Wood