Founded in 1879, the Upper Clapton Football Club is one of the oldest surviving rugby clubs associated to the Rugby Football Union. The 200607 season marks 127 or is it 128 years of rugby for Upper Clapton and our many friends and members scattered around the world. The turn of the millennium also marked out Upper Clapton as one of a handful of clubs whose history spans three centuries.The Club kicked off in and around Clapton, East London but played its early games on Blackheath Common as the Orion Football Club. Our first recorded minutes date from 1879 but Rosslyn Park FCs archives record a fixture against Clapton at a much earlier date.The Clubs name was changed to Upper Clapton and it played games at a number of venues including Elm Farm, Walthamstow and, eventually, Spring Hill, below Clapton Ponds most recently used by Hackney RFC. Early fixture cards show fixtures against London Welsh and Bedford in 1902 and Wasps and Saracens in 1907. Ealing appear in both cards. The Club led a nomadic existence in the period before 1933, when it moved to the current ground at Thornwood, Essex.

Website: http://www.upperclapton.com/