ESSEX FOOTBALL HAS A FINE HISTORY & THE ESL HAS PLAYED ITS PART

ESSEX FOOTBALL HAS A FINE HISTORY & THE ESL HAS PLAYED ITS PART.

As you know this season I have done various articles on the history of Essex leagues, and defunct clubs from Essex, carrying on in this vein I wondered how far some of the current clubs played in the history of football in Essex.

The oldest non-league football club in Essex, still in existence, is Saffron Walden Town FC, established in 1872. They are the 19th oldest football club in the whole world
Arthur Smith negotiated the use of the present field in Catons Lane which became known as “The Meadow” and " the “Bloods” as they are known, because of the red in the club colours were founder members of the Essex County Football Association in 1882. A club in the news often due to their ground is F.C. Clacton, they are certainly one of the oldest clubs in that part of the county with the original Clacton Town established on 27 October 1892 and joined the North Essex League in 1895.  They won Division Two in 1898–99 and 1899–1900, as well as the Essex Junior Cup in 1900. They were then promoted to Division One, but folded at the end of the 1900–01 season. A group of former players formed Old Clactonians, who joined the Harwich & District League in 1902. They remained in the league until 1905, when they were renamed Clacton Town and joined the Clacton & District League, winning it in their first season. The club then returned to the Harwich & District League and also joined the South East Anglian League in 1907, winning Division Two in 1907–08. On 15 June 2007, the club was reborn as FC Clacton, a community interest company. They returned to the Premier Division as Division One runners-up in 2009–10.FC Clacton was announced on 15 June 2007 following the end of Clacton Town Football Club - after a long and distinguished 115-year history, having been formed in 1892. 
The current holders of the FA vase, actually played in the first f.a amateur cup final held at Wembley. The original Romford was established in 1876. They reached the quarter-finals of the FA Cup in 1880–81, but lost 15–0 at Darwen, hampered by playing a dribbling game on a slushy pitch; Darwen also had four goals disallowed. There was no league football for them to play until they joined the South Essex League in 1896. An internal dispute saw several committees and players leave to form a new club in 1909, called Romford United and compete directly against Romford in the South Essex League at ground literally across the road. The original club continued under new management and joined the Southern League while still playing in the South Essex League, but played only a single season before leaving.
The new regime at the original club proved disastrous, being expelled from the South Essex League during the 1910–11 season and subsequently folding, leaving Romford United as the only club with the town's name. They changed to Romford Town and joined the Athenian League, but finished bottom in their first season and left at the end of their second, before closing down during World War I. Romford Town had remained members of the South Essex League and returned to action after the war, but lack of support saw them withdraw in December 1920 and fold. For the rest of the 1920s the only club under the Romford name was Romford Town Thursday, playing on Thursday afternoons at Brooklands, a ground previously used by Romford's reserve team.
In 1974–75 they finished second bottom of the Premier Division and were relegated to Division One. By this time the club had developed Brooklands considerably in anticipation of eventually being elected to the Football League and had large debts to show for it, and had to sell Brooklands in 1975 but remained until 1977. After a season of borrowing grounds to play home matches, they resigned from the Southern League and folded in 1978, with the building work on a new ground barely started and hardly any money left. In 1992 the club was resurrected for a second time and joined the Essex Senior League. They won the league in 1995–96, and in the summer merged with Collier Row (with whom they had been groundsharing since April) to form Collier Row & Romford. The new club took Collier Row's place in Division Two of the Isthmian League, which they won in their first season. In the summer of 1997, they were renamed Romford.

Some Other Notable Essex Clubs who have also plied their trade in the Esl, before going on to bigger & better histories include the following Hornchurch FC: The first Hornchurch Football Club was founded in October 1881. The current club was established in 1923 as Upminster Wanderers, formed in 1923 as Upminster Wanderers, for fifteen years they played in parks football, in the Romford League finishing as champions on three occasions and twice runners-up, and winning the Romford Charity Cup three times. In 1938 they stepped up to the Spartan League, dropping the Wanderers part of the name.1952 was a momentous year – Upminster joined the newly formed Delphian League, moved into their current ground in Bridge Avenue, and changed their name to Hornchurch & Upminster.