Plans for a new museum showcasing UK aircraft heritage at an air hangar in Hooton, Ellesmere Port, have been lodged with the council.

A change of use application has been submitted to Cheshire West and Chester Council to allow the Hooton Park Trust to open a much larger museum on its site.

Currently, the trust is able to run a small on-site museum explaining the history of the base, but if permission was granted, the new museum would be considerably bigger and housed in one of the original Grade II*-listed hangars.

An application by Owen Ellis Architects, on behalf of Hooton Park Trust, explained that Hooton Park first became an aerodrome during the First World War, with Hooton Hall used as a headquarters, hospital and officers' mess for the 18th Battalion of the King's Liverpool Rifles, with hangars and an aeroplane repair section built in 1917.

Aero enthusiasts brought new life to Hooton Park in the late 1920s and 1930s with the venue becoming a national centre for light aircraft, before the light bomber unit, the 610 (County of Chester) Squadron, was formed there in 1936 and used the base after the Second World War.

During the Second World War, Hooton Park was home to several RAF units and assembled aircraft sent from America.

The site was abandoned in 1957, with Vauxhall taking over the site and building the factory which still manufactures vehicles today.

Now the Hooton Park Trust, a not-for-profit, volunteer-run organisation set up in 2000 to run the remaining areas of the historic aerodrome, is looking to attract renewed interest with a larger museum showcasing the area's past.

The 2,680 sq m hangar which would be used for the museum would house some of the aircraft which has been relocated since the Manchester Museum of Science and Industry closed its Air and Space Hall in 2021.

Proposed exhibits at the new museum include an Avro 594 Avian G-EBZM, a de Havilland Tiger Moth EM-840, a Gloster Meteor T7 WH132, a Miles Gemini Mk.1A G-AKHZ and a Sopwith Baby replica, plus other historic planes, gliders, vehicles and aero engines.

The applicants added that moving the current museum into a larger base would have no impact on the Grade II*-listed status of the hangar, and would actually enhance its standing.

A total of 90 car parking spaces are proposed for the museum, six of which would be for disabled parking.

The application statement concludes: "The proposals will establish a museum that reflects and respects the heritage of the former RAF Hooton Park. The museum will be housed in a Grade II* listed aircraft hangar, it is hard to envisage a more suitable use."