The site was first set up, in 1941, by Shell for the Ministry of Aircraft Production as the Aero Engine Research Laboratory.

[4] It opened officially on Thursday 20 May 1948 as Shell Research Centre, by George Legh-Jones.

[5] Also attending the opening was Lt-Gen Jimmy Doolittle, known for his strategy of bombing Germany, John Cunningham (Royal Navy officer), First Sea Lord, and Air Chief Marshal Arthur Barratt[6] In the 1950s it was one of three main Shell research sites in the UK, the others being in Kent and Buckinghamshire.

[7] Pre-ignition was prevented by Ignition Control Additive (ICA), developed at the centre, which was added to Shell petrol, in the UK, from Monday 11 January 1954.

[9] In October 1960 a three-day international symposium held entitled Wear in the gasoline engine.

[10] Testing work in the 1960s took place at the Autodrome de Linas-Montlhéry in France, and MIRA in Leicestershire.

[21] The world's first liquid fuel cell in 1964 was made by the Surface Reactions Division, with K.R.

Williams; it was a direct methanol fuel cell, with a sulphuric acid electrolyte, with a palladium-silver membrane.

Work was also conducted at the Koninklijke Shell Laboratorium (now called the Energy Transition Campus Amsterdam).

[23] A competition run by the centre for fuel efficient vehicles took place on 5 July 1977 at Mallory Park, with teams from 23 universities - the Shell Mileage Marathon.

In 1949 Britain's first diesel train, with an English Electric engine, had Shell lubricating oil.

[32] The site conducted work with British Leyland on pollution in the late 1960s, due to increasing legislation in the US, costing £100,000 a year, overlooked by Morris Sugden.

It is directly east of the large oil refinery, south of the neighbouring Hooton–Helsby line.