Ernest Hooley was born in Shardlow, Derbyshire, England on 30 June 1880 and was articled to Edwin Clarke in Nottingham in 1894. He also attended classes at Nottingham University College. He worked as an assistant to Edmund Herbert Child (1866-1938), and to William Dymock Pratt (1854-1917) before setting up his own architectural practice in Long Eaton, Derbyshire in 1901. He was elected a Licentiate of the Royal Institute Architects (LRIBA) in 1910.
His address was given as Imperial Building, Derby Road, Long Eaton, Derbyshire and Longmoor, College Street, Long Eaton, Derbyshire in 1910 and 1914; Cleve Lodge, 23. Elm Avenue, Long Eaton, Derbyshire in 1926; and Deuacre House, Matlock, Derbyshire in 1939. He died in 1962 in Shardlow [Chesterfield or Duffield - sources differ], Derbyshire.
Architectural projects by Hooley included alterations to West Villa, Derby Road, Long Eaton, Derbyshire (1903); 171-177 Station Road, Beeston, Nottinghamshire (1905); Sunday School, Station Street Baptist Church, Long Eaton, Derbyshire (1907); Moorlands, 295 Curzon Street, Long Eaton, Derbyshire (1908); 17 Ilkeston Road, Bramcote, Nottinghamshire (1936); reconstruction of Baptist Church, Station Street, Long eaton, Derbyshire (1954); Welbeck Baptist Free Church, Long Eaton, Derbyshire (1957-48). Other projects included Lace mills at Long Eaton, Derbyshire; house at Sandiacre, Derbyshire; alterations and additions to St. John's Lodge, Long Eaton, Derbyshire; and in the 1920s and 1930s, the laying out and development of housing estates at Sandiacre, Derbyshire, Wigston, Leicestershire and Beeston, Nottinghamshire. By the late 1930s he had been responsible for building some 2,000 houses
Directory of British Architects 1834-1914. Compiled by Antonia Brodie, et al. Volume 1: A-K. London; New York: British Architectural Library, Royal Institute of British Architects/Continuum, 2001