Our heritage
A century of racing at Orchard Portman
Founded in 1927, Taunton is England's youngest jumps course - but racing has run through this corner of Somerset for far longer.
Established 1927
Somerset's home of jump racing
A few miles south of Taunton's 12th-century castle lies Orchard Portman - a parish on the Shoreditch road and the present home of Taunton races. There has been racing somewhere in the Taunton area since the eighteenth century, but the course as we know it was founded in 1927, making it the youngest jumps course in England.
Its story runs from amateur riders and rebel armies through Edwardian race meetings by the River Parrett to the modern, well-drained track racing fans know today.
By the numbers
1927
Year the racecourse was founded
7
Founders who met at the Paddington Hotel
21 Sept
Date of the first meeting in 1927
1
England's youngest jumps course
Racing in the Taunton area for Centuries
The first recorded venture came in 1788 with races at Broomhay, near West Monkton - a meeting that soon failed, possibly because of the outbreak of the Napoleonic Wars. Taunton was revived in 1825 through the efforts of a Mr J E White, and by the following August the Sporting Magazine's reporter found 'the company more numerous and brilliant than ever before assembled in that part of the country', with between eight and nine thousand thronging the course.
Race days then were general holidays for all classes. The course was ringed with carriages and phaetons on one side and, on the other, booths, shows, tumblers, sword-swallowers, gypsies and 'Punch' - while thieves worked the crowd for purses and silver tankards.
A new course at
Orchard Portman
Racing continued beside the River Parrett at Bridgwater until the early twentieth century, when the Great War created a gap that wasn't filled until 1927. In that year, on 25th July, seven men met at the Paddington Hotel in London to found the Taunton Racecourse Company - and to create a new racecourse on land owned by Viscount Portman.
The location is rich in history. Orchard Portman House, demolished in 1840 and the former seat of the Portman family, once stood on the site of the present back straight, with formal gardens sloping down to a small church whose tower - parts of which date to Saxon times - can still be seen from the stands today.
The first meeting at the new course was held on 21st September 1927. The opening race, The Shoreditch Selling Hurdle, was won by Mr Rayson's Baalbek, ridden by M Rayson - home by three-quarters of a length.
The course today
Transformed over a century
The course on Orchard Great Field has been transformed over the decades. Spoil from the M5 motorway was used to build up and extend the bends and the back straight, while the Somerset clay has been carefully drained to provide the best possible going throughout the season.
Facilities for spectators have been improved beyond recognition from the early days, when viewing was from a small wooden stand often surrounded by a sea of mud. Today, Taunton offers modern stands, restaurants and hospitality - with the Saxon church tower still watching over the back straight, just as it has since the first race in 1927.