Shinty was previously played widely in England in the 19th century and early 20th century, with teams such as London Scots, Bolton Caledonian, Cottonopolis and evidence to suggest it was played in some form in Cumberland, Yorkshire, Lancashire, Cheshire, Nottingham, and Lincoln.
The blue tops of London Camanachd were given to the Chelsea football team to use as shinty was at the time more popular and just better funded.
Football and shinty shared the same grounds for many years in the 19th century Still to this day both London Camanachd and Chelsea F.C.
There was a Northallerton Camanachd in the late 60s to early 80s, and interest was maintained by the links to the nearby military base, but they only competed periodically.
Shinty had been holding on even if in its very small form in England and only London Camanachd was left into the 21st century.
One of the last games london played was to the Highlanders (the army shinty team) in the Bullough cup.
In the years that followed the numbers would get smaller until 2009 where the London team only went down to a few people who would occasionally hit a ball in the park and whenever possible attempt to enter a 6s tournament.
As this point the focus was getting a stable team that could be reintroduced to Scotland to take part in the Bullough cup.
ESA lost this game but at the time had not realised the fire that had been started in England when it came to shinty and in the coming years the teams that would be formed as a result of this effort made.
Atkins UK donated Helmets to the association to help provide protection, especially to the youth players, at club and international level.
The three players in question, Matt Mossop, Graham Love and Alan MacDonald, had already founded/revived teams in their respective areas, Cornwall, London and Northallerton.
With London crowned English Champions at the Shinty Shop Challenge Cup on goal difference over Cornwall at Bristol's expense, ESA organized the historic first shinty international against the US in 2013 (England 2- USA 0), ESA entered the Bullough Cup for the first time in 2013, whilst its constituent teams were represented at St Andrews Sixes in 2013.
The committee was expanded in 2014 to facilitate the development of Women's and University Shinty as well as overseeing the day-to-day running of the association.