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East Thurrock United Football Club was
founded on 27th April 1969 by a group of football
enthusiasts who felt that the expanding area around the
Thameside towns of Corringham and Stanford-Le-Hope should
have a senior non-league football club. An early
problem faced by the club was finding a suitable ground
so, in their first season as members of the Southern
Essex Combination, in 1969/70, home matches were played
at Corringham Recreation Ground. The manager in that
initial season was Brian Fayers, a key figure in the
formation of the club. He guided the Rocks to third place
and the following season they moved up to the
intermediate section of the old Greater London League.
Now playing at the Billet in Stanford-Le-Hope, the
Rocks enjoyed much success. In successive seasons the
side won Division Two then Division One of the League,
prompting an application to the Essex FA for senior
status. In order to achieve this, the club moved in with
nearby Grays Athletic and it was admitted to the Senior
Division Two of the Metropolitan London League. East
Thurrock gained its third championship in a row and won
promotion to the Premier Division. However, fortunes then
took a turn for the worse, and a ten year period of
struggle began.
During this time various managers came and went, followed
by several of the founding fathers. This period also
brought ground problems and East Thurrock shared with
Tilbury and Grays, again, to mention but a few. Then,
finally, with the help of the FA, Thurrock Council and
brewers Greene King, the club found a new home at Rookery
Hill.
In 1985/86, and for the following two seasons, East
Thurrock United finished in a very commendable fifth in
the Essex Senior League but managed to achieve an even
more impressive second place in 1988/89 when the team
also went onto win the League Cup, it's first ever Senior
trophy.
In 1982 the League Cup was back at Rookery Hill and
the team reached the final of the Essex Senior cup. In
also achieving second place in the league, an application
was put in to join the Isthmian League and East Thurrock
became members of Division Three for the following season.
After seven up and down seasons in the basement division,
and after a slow start to the 1999/2000 campaign, the
Rocks went on to take the title and earned promotion to
Division Two. At the start of the 2002/03 season the
Ryman League was restructured and the Rocks were placed
in Division One North.
In the following season the Rocks finished third
in the Premier Division, again qualifying for the play-offs. This time
in the semi-finals they beat Tonbridge Angels 2–0 and in the final beat
Dulwich Hamlet 3–1. The final saw a record crowd of 1,661, witnessing
promotion to the National League South. East Thurrock remained in the
sixth tier for three seasons. The club finished second-from-bottom of
the National League South in 2018–19, and were relegated back to the
Isthmian League's Premier Division for the 2019/2020 season.
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