Capershotts

The pitch at Capershotts used to slope. It was levelled at some point, and the drainage has given trouble for years — a natural grass surface on low ground near the Lee valley, in Essex, is not an easy thing to keep playable.

Most of what the ground has now arrived second-hand. The floodlights came from Walthamstow Avenue in 1990. The seats came from Maine Road in 2005, fitted into a place that already had a 200-seater stand and a clubhouse dating from the late 1960s, put up in the earliest years of Waltham Abbey United before the merger. Very little here was built for this ground; most of it was built for somewhere else first.

Waltham Abbey F.C. have played at Capershotts since 1944, when the club began life as Waltham Abbey Youth Club. The best-attended match came on 2 May 2009 — 419 people for the Isthmian League Division One North play-off final against Concord Rangers. It finished 1–1 and went to penalties, and the home side won 5–4 to go up to the Isthmian League Premier Division for the first time. That figure remains the record.

The ground has also taken FA Cup qualifying ties, against Canvey Island and against St Neots Town, and an Essex Senior Cup fourth-round match with Southend United on 28 November 2018 — the sort of draw that brought a Football League club to Sewardstone Road for an evening. Pre-season friendlies against Grays Athletic and Enfield Town fill out the rest.