The hard winter of 1962/63 resulted in many frozen pitches and little rugby being played. Peter Reader, John Soulsby and Martin Smith - who all played for Upper Clapton, used to meet at the Cross Keys pub in Saffron Walden on Saturday mornings instead of playing, discussed the formation of a local club.

A local newspaper advertisement attracted 15-20 people to the inaugural meeting held in the Cross Keys pub, and a steering committee was formed. In the following weeks, we recruited a former Kent hooker, Iain Wright-Watson as captain, and a City Banker, Frank Gelling as President. Frank Gelling's contacts enabled the club to rent Wimbish Recreation Field from the parish council, where the club remained until the formation of Uttlesford District Council, and local politics caused us to move to RAF Debden with after match festivities at the Kings Arms in Market Hill.

Frank Gelling's friendship with Tom Latham, a Thaxted farmer, led to the recruitment of some 'class' players, including Jeremy Janion (who later went on to play for England) and the early establishment of a successful club, later strengthened when a number of Old Stortfordians joined us when their club folded.

Saffron Walden RFC originally joined the Essex sub-county of 'Eastern Counties', but changed to Cambridgeshire when we were unable to get county trials for any of our players, we have always belonged to Cambridge University & District Referees Society.

Saffron Walden RFC played a scratch game against Bishop's Stortford at the end of the 1962/63 season which was lost badly, despite Iain Wright-Watson hooking all of Walden's put-ins and most of Stortford's, whilst sliding backwards at every scrum. The first proper game at the start of the 1963-64 season was against Bury St. Edmunds 'A' which Saffron Walden won 19-9.

After many unsuccessful attempts to buy land for a permanent home in or near Saffron Walden, we purchased land at Henham and our current home at Springate was established. It took two year’s hard work by club members to turn the agricultural land into 3 full size pitches and to build the original, mainly wooden, clubhouse. Further development took place in 1982 with the construction of the current facilities and in 2000 the playing area had an extensive drainage programme.

In 1976 Walden was one of the first clubs in the area to introduce the then new mini rugby. This was specifically aimed at boys from non-rugby playing schools and encouraged many new players to the game. Roger Smith organised the first Colts team in 1978, the difficulty then was finding fixtures as few other clubs had Junior sections, and only four games were played. By 1984 the under 19's and under 16's had full fixture lists and Walden were providing most of the players for the Cambridgeshire teams. A shortage of organisers and supporters led to the demise of the junior section in the early 90's, but thanks to the efforts of Hayden and Debbie Crumpler this has now been re-established. The junior section is now progressing well with recent support from Simon Chappell, Rob Raines, Simon Read, John Tyskiewicz and James Potter.

Like many clubs, Saffron Walden has had its ups and downs in terms of results and playing strength. The first “Golden Period” came in the late 60’s when a number of new players joined to strengthen the first team and allow for the addition of a third fifteen. The inaugural Cambridgeshire Knockout Cup was won, for the first of 8 times. This record has only recently been taken by the Cambridge City club. Walden were also runners up on a further 8 occasions.

The 80’s saw, to date, the strongest period in Walden’s history with a place in the 1st Division of the new Eastern Counties Merit Table which contained all the top clubs in the area. In 1986 Walden just lost to Sudbury in the Final of the Eastern Counties Cup and then played Blackheath in the John Player Cup, the first and only time we entertained a 1st Class club at Springate. Walden were unlucky to lose 9 pts to 16 pts.

Saffron Walden has consistently developed the talents and abilities of its players and encourages them to strive for the highest goals. This naturally has led some to move on to more Senior clubs, and in the case of Jeremy Janion to 10 England Caps. Right from the early days when Dave Morley left to join Leicester through Frank Bennet to Bedford and more recently Andrew Wisbey also to Bedford, Walden has always encouraged members to play at their highest level. The great benefit is that these players usually return and pass on their experience to other aspiring members. Walden has also benefited from players with senior joining the club: John Keily came from London Irish, David Chisnall from Waterloo and Alan Mitchell from Durham.

Thanks to Martin Smith for his help in putting this brief history together, if any of you 'Old Boys' out there have more details that you want added, e-mail info@swrfc.co.uk