Our club was formed in 1982 by Phil & Pat Matthews, Cecil Lynch and Neil Forshaw and in September of that year Tattenhall runners held its first race.

 The running boom was at its peak with marathon fever gripping the nation and Tattenhall was not going to miss out. Deciding that a full marathon was too ambitious for a new club to put on, the organisers still wanted a hook which would capture the imagination of people wanting to race. 

The Tattenhall Quarter Marathon was incorporated into the village fete and whilst the race was being run there were 100 metre races taking place on the field with side shows, bouncy castles, tombola, etc. Trophies were donated by the local community and glorious sunshine ensured that runners as well as visitors to the fete had a great day out. Tattenhalls tradition of putting on great races was born.

The club received their accreditation into the AAAs in January 1983.

In May 1983 Lawrie joined the club and by the end of that year Trevor had also joined. Two of the clubs stalwarts who down the years  have served the club well in both competition and in the commitee room.

On the 4th November 1984 the first ever race of the newly formed Borders League was held in Tattenhall where the runners took in the Quarter Marathon course. Sixteen Tattenhall runners took part including Trevor Gilbertson and Jane Woodley. Our club has remained firmly commited to this winter road racing league over the years and we have more members who have completed 100 of these races than all the other clubs put together. A magnificent acheivement.

Mick Griffin who joined us in this year went on to become the first athlete to acheive 100 Borders League races closely followed by Pat Matthews who was the first lady to acheive this. The first of our Centurians.

A long standing tradition of the club over the years has been the Pub runs organised to celebrate a members birthday or such like. These are 6 to 10 mile runs visiting 4 or 5 pubs along the way where refreshments have been purchased by kindly sole in a car prior to arrival. Imagine the scene....

A lone lady walks into a quiet country pub and asks for 18 pints of bitter, 12 halves of lager and a barley wine. The landlord obliges somewhat bemused whilst his handfull of quiet customers and two Japanese tourists look on sensing that something is going to happen. They become aware of a growing wave of sound approaching like the noise of a distant steam train in the wind or a herd of buffalo crossing the far praire. Louder and louder, closer and closer comes the mysterious entity, rythmic and chattering. Suddenly the doors burst open and in comes a wave of sweating runners, flooding into the pub as though it was a perfectly normal thing to do, they drink up with the speed that only a runner in mid race can whilst chattering on about pbs and the benefits of Vaseline upon a chaffed groin. The customers look on transfixed. Within moments its over and the running storm troopers are gone, the rythmic chatterring fading over the far hill. Was it a dream ? The Japanese tourist leans over to his wife and says with certainty " Monty Python here today", the landlord stands agog, the lone lady smiles apologetically, shrugs her shoulders and leaves....

The first ever pub run was in 1987 to celebrate Phil Matthews and Anne Griffins joint 40th birthdays. Five pubs were visited including the Pheasant, Alderdsey Arms and the Sportsmans before returning to the Club where Lawrie made an incomprehensible speech and fell over. The tradition was born.

Many members in the 80s and 90s came to club nights as families with both mum and dad running whilst the kids played together on the Flacca or in the club. An informal creche was arranged with members taking turns to look after the kids each week. Many of these children remain lifelong friends looking back on those days with warm memories.

The clubhouse back then was more like a cricket pavillion with no central heating but it did have a simple bar which members took turns to man for after-training refreshments. In the wintertime the heating was provided by a couple of parrafin heaters. Despite this members discussed important athletic matters into the small hours serving themselves and dropping the money into a biscuit tin.

Popular races with club members back then were the Buxton Half Marathon and the Bollin Valley 13. Many members would take caravans or tents to the Buxton race to enjoy a weekend together.

The Bollin Valley 13 was a unique race run in teams of 4. It was an obstacle race where the racers would have to carry either a car tyre or a fence post with them over the entire race whilst they ran much of the race actually IN the River Bollin and grappled with having to climb ropes, slither through muddy underground tunnels and many other assault course pieces of apparatus. We loved it and the club had many successful teams over the years.

                                                                                                                                  A Tattenhall Team including Trevor hauls their burden for 13 weary miles

It was this concept of team racing that led to Phil Matthews organising the Tattenhall Tough Team Challenge which incorporates the infamous 'Railway climb'. The early races had an element of orientering in the off road sections with fairly minimal marshalling and course marking. Some teams had not grasped this concept and ran off course causing us to send out teams to look for these 'lost' runners. Over the years we have had to develop a softer approach with more marshalls in the hot spots on course.

In the early years members took turns each week to lead the Thursday training runs and it wasn't until 1995 that we had our first official coach to lead club training. Dave Knott stepped up to assume this post and became a British Athletics Federation qualified coach that same year. Since then two other members, Trevor and Mark have joined the coaching team and all are qualified UKathletics coaches. We continue to develop our coaching team and in the Spring of 2006 a further six members joined the coaching ranks as Assistant Coaches. 
In 2007 Dave became a professional coach when he qualified as a Personal Trainer and set up his own business under the name of DevaFitness where he continues to train athletes and sportsmen of all kinds