The season was a very fractured one due to the 2001 United Kingdom foot-and-mouth outbreak which primarily affected the two northernmost clubs in the division - Aspatria and Tynedale - leading to a large number of fixtures being cancelled in the latter half of the season.

[4] Sedgley Park would join them soon after when they won their promotion playoff game at home against the 2000-01 National Division Three South runners up Launceston in front of over 1,000 fans.

[5] The foot-and-mouth outbreak made relegation far from straightforward as initially the bottom two were Aspatria and Tynedale, who had played 18 games each - less than any of the other teams in the division.

In Tynedale's case this was particularly hard as they were only 1 point behind 12th placed Sandal but had played six games less.

I have used references from the Telegraph wherever possible which should tie in with the results from the England rugby website.