Northern General Service Hangar (Building 16), Hooton Park Aerodrome

Northern General Service Hangar (Building 16), Hooton Park Aerodrome

This general service hangar was built in 1917 for the Royal Flying Corps. It is constructed of red brick with a bitumen-felted roof. The building is a single-storey twin-range hangar comprising 16 bays in length, with flanking workshops on either side. The structure is supported by corner pylons, each consisting of 6 brick piers linked at the top by segmental arches. The south-west pylon was extended upwards during the Second World War to serve as a fire watch observation post. Doors at each end are arranged in 3 tiers of horizontally-sliding pairs. The gables are segmentally-headed with vertical studding and louvred openings. Continuous roof lanterns run along each range. The sides of the hangars feature raking buttresses to each bay, and 27-pane iron casements are fitted to all bays except the end ones. Contemporary lean-to offices are positioned along the central part of each side.

Internally, each bay is divided by a wooden-latticed Belfast roof truss. A central arcade of twin brick piers linked by segmental arches runs through the length of the building.

Hooton Park occupies a site that was requisitioned by the army in 1914. The hangars were begun in late 1916 and completed in 1917 as part of a Training Depot Station. Although originally intended as an Aircraft Acceptance Park for American-built aircraft arriving through Liverpool docks, the need to train fighter pilots for the Western Front led instead to its establishment in September 1917 as a training depot station for Canadian and American pilots. After closure in 1919, training functions were transferred to RAF Shotwick (Sealand) across the Dee in Clwyd.

From 1927, Hooton Park served as one of a small number of Air Ministry-subsidised flying clubs, following a meeting at Liverpool Town Hall supported by Sir Sefton Brancker, the Director of Civil Aviation. The Comper Aircraft Company was formed on the site in 1930, and Hooton served as Liverpool's municipal airport from 1930 until its replacement by Speke in 1933.

No. 610 'County of Chester' Squadron was formed at Hooton in February 1936 and played a key role in the Battle of France and the Battle of Britain. From early 1940, No. 7 Aircraft Assembly Unit assembled approximately 9,000 aircraft brought into Merseyside's ports from North America. The Civilian Repair Organisation, headed by Martin Hearn, made significant contributions to the war effort through inspection and overhaul of aircraft, particularly the Mosquito. Throughout the Second World War, Hooton played a vital support role in the Battle of the Atlantic. The station's Operations Record Books show it provided essential support in keeping shipping lanes into Liverpool open through flying 'Scarecrow Patrols'. No. 206 Squadron flew Avro reconnaissance bombers from Hooton Park, later replaced by American Hudsons and Whitley bombers of 502 Squadron, equipped with radar for anti-submarine warfare. No. 11 Radio School and associated units occupied the hangars from 1942 to 1944, serving as the only school established to train Coastal Command's airborne radar operators for submarine detection.

The hangars were built by Holland, Hannan and Cubitt Ltd to a type design by the Royal Engineers, with 80-foot spans and 25-foot clear heights. The Belfast roof trusses were manufactured by D Anderson and Co., Belfast. The doors slid into brick gantries, which have been subject to removal and alteration on the Vauxhall hangar. The repair hangar was demolished around 1920.

Of the 66 stations of this type operational in November 1918, Hooton Park shares with Duxford in Cambridgeshire the distinction of being the only site to have retained its original complement of 3 paired hangars. This represents a rare survival of significance in the context of early powered flight in both Britain and Europe, enhanced by Hooton's later historical associations. The three paired hangars at Hooton and those across the Dee at RAF North Shotwick (Sealand, Clwyd) were built for the same Wing and operated together as a pair; the survival of both related groups is unique. Two runways were laid in 1941.