Earliest Meeting: 1720’s
Final Meeting: 1740
The Hampshire market town of Alton is located across a valley of the River Wey some 14 kilometres from Farnham and 26 kilometres north-east of Winchester. The town has a rich history and was recorded in the 1086 Domesday Book when known as Aoltone. It held its own race meetings in the early years of the 18th century, possibly from 1720 onwards, with the meetings coinciding with annual fairs. To date no records have been found of the exact dates of the meetings, nor any results from such meetings. Furthermore, no maps record the exact location of the racecourse. Prior to 1740 there were a multitude of country race meetings, almost all of them included in John Cheny’s list of race meetings, but the government were concerned that the plethora of meetings did not help to increase the quality of bloodstock. In order to combat this Parliament passed an Act in 1740 which specified that the minimum prize per race was £50, an amount which most country courses could not afford. Alton was one of many such courses which suffered as a consequence of this Act and did not stage any further meetings after 1740.

Much of the information about this course has been found using internet research and is in the public domain. However, useful research sources have been:-

London Illustrated News

Racing Illustrated 1895-1899

The Sporting & Dramatic Illustrated

Northern Turf History Volumes 1-4 by J.Fairfax-Blakeborough

The Sporting Magazine

A Long Time Gone by Chris Pitt first published in 1996 ISBN 0 900599 89 8

Racing Calendars which were first published in 1727

ISBN 978-0-9957632-0-3

652 pages

774 former courses

ISBN 978-0-9957632-1-0

352 pages

400 former courses

ISBN 978-0-9957632-2-7

180 pages

140 former courses

ISBN 978-0-9957632-3-4

264 pages

235 former courses