Tarporley Hunt Club

The Tarporley Hunt Club is a hunt club which meets at Tarporley in Cheshire, England. Founded in 1762, it is the oldest surviving such society in England. Its members' exploits were immortalised in the Hunting Songs of Rowland Egerton-Warburton. The club also organised the Tarporley Races, a horse racing meeting, from 1776 until 1939. The club's patron is Charles, Prince of Wales.

The club was founded in 1762, pre-dating the Cheshire Hunt by a year. The nine founders included the Reverend Obadiah Lane of Longton, the first president; John Crewe, son of the Rector of Barthomley, and the Honourable Booth Grey, son of the fourth Earl of Stamford, the first secretaries; Robert Salusbury Cotton, son of Sir Lynch Salusbury Cotton, of Combermere Abbey; and George Wilbraham of Nantwich, later of Delamere Lodge. The first hunt was held on 14 November 1762.

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. At first the club organised hare coursing, but its focus had already begun to switch to fox hunting within the first few years. Membership was limited to twenty in 1764, expanded to twenty-five in 1769 and later to forty. The club's headquarters soon became the Swan Hotel, which dates from 1769. In the founding set of rules, members were required to drink "three collar bumpers" after both dinner and supper, and, in the event of marriage, to present each club member with a pair of buckskin breeches.

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