In the Domesday Book it was described as 'Hotone'. Hooton Manor was granted to Adam de Aldithley, a follower of William the Conqueror and in 1310 it passed to William de Stanley. Stanley also gained the Master Forestership of Wirral at the same time and and Hooton Manor became the seat of the Earls of Stanley. A half-timbered manor house was built by the family in the late fifteenth century and this was replaced by a mansion in the early eighteenth century. Hooton Hall was designed by William Wyatt for the fifth baronet, Sir William Stanley, and was built from local stone in the Palladian style.
The Stanley family continued to own the estate until the middle of the nineteenth century when financial constraints forced a sale to their Liverpool bankers. Hooton Park became a military hospital in the First World War and an airfield was built in 1917 for training American and Canadian pilots. The airfield was also used in the Second World War and remained a military airfield until 1957 when the Royal Auxiliary Air Force was disbanded. Since that time, it has become home to the largest Vauxhall factory in the country.
