Excavations of the large Roman industrial settlement in the suburbs of modern-day Wilderspool and Stockton Heath have unearthed a Roman mask,[2] one of only a handful found in Europe, and the first evidence of this settlement was unearthed during the early excavation of the Bridgewater Canal in Stockton Heath in 1770.

[3] Primary evidence points to a probable temple to Minerva[4] on the site, a strong focus on pottery and glass bead paste making industries, and a trapezoidal building of unidentified purpose.

[7] In 1643, parliamentarian forces under the command of Sir William Brereton advanced from Northwich to launch an attack on Warrington, the Lancashire headquarters of the royalist leader James Stanley, 7th Earl of Derby.

The battle is referred to in the 1859 novel Hollywood Hall by James Grant: "A priory, situated in a wooded hollow, ruined and battered as the Royalists had left it in 1643, next caught my eye, when, riding rapidly on, I approached a wide waste common called Stockton Heath, past which the Mersey rolled amid swamps and morasses filled with rushes and willows.

This description contrasts sharply with the variants of "fashionable shopping village" frequently encountered in the literature of estate agents today.

Early maps refer to a hamlet by the name of Stoken[10] (or Stocken[11]) where the present village of Stockton Heath now stands.

The Bridgewater Canal, one of two canals that pass through the village, reached Stockton Heath in 1772, the year of the death of its designer, James Brindley[12] In the 1900s George Formby Senior moved his young family to Stockton Heath and it was from here that George Formby Junior began his entertainment career.

In 1974, Stockton Heath, historically part of Cheshire, became incorporated into the borough of Warrington under the Local Government Act 1972.

Stockton Heath forms part of the Warrington South parliamentary constituency which is represented in the House of Commons by Sarah Hall (Labour) since July 2024.