North 1 East was a sixth tier league in the English rugby union domestic competition, formed in 1987 using the name North Division 2, involving clubs from the north of the country. There was also a division known as North East 1 that began in 1987 for clubs based in the north-east but this was a seventh (later eighth) tier league. North Division 2 would later split into two regional divisions, known as North 1 East and North 1 West. North 1 East was made up of teams from around the North East and Yorkshire, playing home and away matches throughout a winter season. The league champions were automatically promoted to the North Premier, whilst the second placed team entered into a play-off match with the second placed team in the equivalent Division North 1 West. The bottom three teams were relegated to either the Counties 1 Yorkshire or the Counties 1 Durham & Northumberland leagues, the seventh tier of the English domestic rugby union competition. Following the play-off game, depending on the result, a team from the division with fifteen teams was transferred to the division with thirteen teams to level up the number of teams in each division. The league was discontinued in 2022 as part of the Rugby Football Union Adult Competition Review. The majority of the teams in North 1 East formed the new level six Regional 2 North East league, with the remainder moving to Regional 2 North.

Clubs

2021–22

Kendal finished 5th in N1E in 2019-20 but were level transferred to North 1 West for the current season to address an imbalance of teams. The teams competing in 2021-22 achieved their places in the league based on performances in 2019-20, the 'previous season' column in the table below refers to that season not 2020-21.

2020–21

On 30 October 2020 the RFU announced that due to the coronavirus pandemic a decision had been taken to cancel all adult competitive leagues (National League 1 and below) for the 2020/21 season, meaning North 1 East was not contested.

2019–20

Original

When league rugby began in 1987 this was a single division containing the following teams from the north of England:

Division honours

North Division 2 (1987–1993)

The original North Division 2 was a tier 6 league with promotion up to North Division 1 and relegation down to either North East 1 or North West 1.

North Division 2 (1993–1996)

The creation of National 5 North for the 1993–94 season, meant that North Division 2 dropped from being a tier 6 league to a tier 7 league for the years that National 5 North was active.

North Division 2 (1996–2000)

The cancellation of National 5 North at the end of the 1995–96 season meant that North Division 2 reverted to being a tier 6 league.

North 2 East

For the 2000–01 season, North Division 2 was split into two regional divisions - North 2 East and North 2 West. While promotion continued up into North Division 1, the cancellation of the North East 1, North East 2 and North East 3 meant that relegation was now to either Durham/Northumberland 1 or Yorkshire 1.

North 1 East

For the 2009–10 season the division would be renamed North 1 East as part of wholesale national restructure of the league system by the RFU leading to mass changes at all levels including in the north.

Promotion play-offs

Since the 2000–01 season there has been a play-off between the runners-up of North 1 East and North 1 West for the third and final promotion place to North Premier. The team with the superior league record has home advantage in the tie. At the end of the 2019–20 season the North 1 East have been the most successful with thirteen wins to the North 1 West teams six; and the home team has won promotion on fifteen occasions compared to the away teams five.

Number of league titles