Building record 2855/0/1 - Northern General Service Hanger at Hooton Park Airfield

<1> English Heritage, 2005, List of Buildings of Special Architectural or Historic Interest, 215656 (Digital Archive). SCH4666.

General service hangar. 1917 for the Royal Flying Corps. Red Brick with bitumin-felted roof. Single storey twin-range hangar of 16 bays in length, with flanking workshops. Corner pylons of 6 brick piers linked at top by segmental arches; South-West pylon extended upwards in the Second World War as a fire watch post. Doors at each end are in 3 tiers of horizontally-sliding pairs; segmentally-headed gables with verticle studding and louvred openings. Continuous roof lantems to each range. Sides of hangars have raking buttresses to each bay; 27-pane iron casements to all but the end bays. Contemporary lean-to offices to central part of each side. Interior:each bay divided by a wooden-latticed 'Belfast' roof truss; central arcade of twin brick piers linked by segmental arches.

<2> Oxton and Prenton Edition, 1997, Wirral Champion (Book). SCH3855.

In 1914 the Government requisitioned the hall and estate of Hooton Park, for use as a military training ground. The 18th Battalion of The Kings Liverpool Regiment arrived in September 1914. After the army had departed, the Royal Flying Corps selected the site for use as an aerodrome. Hundreds of pilots were trained here until its closure in 1919. In 1927 the site was acquired by G. Dawson, for the new Liverpool Airport. He also set up the Liverpool and District Aero Club and his financial support assisted the set up of the Comper Aircraft Factory and Pobjoy Airmotors Manufacturers in the Hooton Hangers. The site was the home to No.610 squadron Auxiliary Airforce from 1936. Prior to WWII they were re-equipped with spitfires for convoy duty in the Atlantic. Later the site was used as an aircraft store and dump. After the war it was used as a base for the No.’s 610, 611 and 633 squadrons of the Auxiliary Airforce.