THE restoration experts who saved RAF Sealand, near Chester, have been commissioned to help save the “original Liverpool airport”.

The historic Grade II listed hangars in Hooton have been in decline for decades.

But now James Carroll Ltd have been commissioned to produce a survey of three hangars by the Hooton Park Trust.

Two of the three hangars are severely damaged and the trust’s Bob Frost said: “Now number three is actually dangerous to go in, and it and number one might not survive another winter.”

North Wales builders Carroll recently completed a major renovation of similar hangars just a few miles away at RAF Sealand on Deeside, in Flintshire. The work in Deeside attracted the Hooton Park Trust who have had their own problems with maintenance at the site, which was once owned by Vauxhall Motors.

Carroll’s managing director James Carroll, himself a pilot, said: “As far as I know, we’re the first people given the task of repairing this type of roof truss.”

The airfield and hangars were built in 1917 to train the Biggles-era pilots of World War I, and after that it was bought in 1927 as a possible site for a major airport for Liverpool and the North West. It finally closed in 1957.

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