Tarporley Hunt Club

[3] The club met twice annually at Tarporley, with each meeting lasting seven days, and the hunting in the early years largely taking place within Delamere Forest.

[3][6] The club used the first pack of foxhounds in Cheshire, whose master was John Smith-Barry, son of the fourth Earl of Barrymore, of Marbury Hall.

[3]After Barry's death in 1784, the hunt used a pack kept by Sir Peter Warburton of Arley Hall, which later became known as the Cheshire Hounds.

[3] Members of the Egerton, Cholmondeley, Grosvenor and other prominent local families joined not long after the club's foundation.

Among the many early members who were important in county or national affairs were Sir Philip Egerton of Oulton Park; Richard Grosvenor, first Earl Grosvenor, of Eaton Hall; Field Marshal Stapleton Cotton, first Viscount Combermere, of Combermere Abbey; Thomas Cholmondeley of Vale Royal; and his son, also Thomas Cholmondeley, first Baron Delamere.

He immortalised some of its members' exploits in his Hunting Songs, and also wrote a history of the club to accompany an edition of the verses.

[1][3][5] George Wilbraham, one of the club's original founders, purchased an estate in Delamere Forest including Crabtree Green, which had been used as racecourse since the mid-17th century.

[6][10] After the enclosure of Delamere Forest in 1812, the races moved first to Billington's Training Ground, near Oulton, and then a few years later to Cotebrook, on a course by the modern A49 rented from Lord Shrewsbury.