Blackheath FC’s history is so rich that Montague Druitt, the prime suspect in the Jack the Ripper murders, once served as the club’s secretary and director, while the fictional Dr Watson, of Sherlock Holmes fame, was described as having played for the club in Sir Arthur Conan Doyle’s 1924 classic The Adventure of the Sussex Vampire.

But could the world’s oldest “open” club, who were founded in 1858 (they were a member of the Football Association until 1871), be about to write a bold new chapter in the professional era?

Having surprised themselves by gaining promotion to the Champ this season for the first time since 1999 by defeating London Scottish in the accessional final last May, the club’s immediate focus is consolidating their place in English rugby’s second tier.

But the new criteria-based franchise model in the Prem, allowing for expansion beyond 10 clubs, has allowed senior figures in the club to ponder the possibility of one day gaining entry to the top flight.

James Fleming, the club’s chairman, and Russell Ticehurst, managing director, both attended the Champ summit at Twickenham on Wednesday and left the session with a greater understanding of the challenges ahead, but also with a potential glimpse of the future.

Ticehurst told Telegraph Sport: “We sat there and listened to around 12 years of discussion summed up in about two hours between the Champ clubs and the RFU and we thought, ‘Wow, there is a lot to do here if we want to go up’.

“The landscape has changed so much. It is not like going into the old first division. This is proper rugby. It’s millions and millions of pounds. It cemented my views about the sustainability and the financial viability, but as a competitive person in business, in rugby and sport, God, you get excited, don’t you?

“You want to do the best that you can, and you think, ‘Can we push a little bit harder?’ As James and I walked back to the station, all we were talking about was, ‘What do we need to do? How are we going to do it?’ All that kind of stuff.”

The informal expression of interest has come as a welcome surprise to those charged with overseeing the expansion of the Prem.

Estimates of the financial backing required for a new franchise range between £30m and £50m, and as a members-owned club, given the need to also invest the “P share” to gain entry to the Prem and also invest heavily in the women’s game, Blackheath would need to attract significant investment to properly explore potential franchise options.

But it is understood that at least five serious United States-based investors are surveying the franchise model and in Blackheath’s favour is their unique selling point as the world’s oldest club (they are known colloquially simply as “Club”), and all the heritage that comes with it.

When the club were presented last July with a commemorative board to honour the number of British and Irish Lions the club have produced, there were so many names – 43 – they required an extra board to display them all.

The club were central to organising the first rugby international between Scotland and England in Edinburgh in 1871 and hosted England’s inaugural match against Wales 10 years later.

When the Lions first toured in 1888, it was Blackheath’s captain, Andrew Stoddart, who took over the captaincy for the Tests against New Zealand and Australia after Robert “Bob” Seddon tragically drowned.

One of their members, William Percy “Tottie” Carpmael, was also the brains behind the creation of the Barbarians. “When we were at Twickenham on Wednesday, we were looking in a cabinet and there was ‘1901, England versus Australia at Rectory Field’,” added Ticehurst.

But the attractiveness of Blackheath’s offering is not just heritage but location and real estate, too.

Kent has been identified as a target region for a potential expansion team or relocation project. Blackheath, two years ago, paid £1.5m for the freehold to more than 17 acres of land at their home ground Well Hall in Eltham, having moved there in 2016 from their historic Rectory Field home.

“It’s a great honour to be chairman of such a historic club and we have the responsibility of leaving this club in a better place than we found it,” Fleming said.

“And in that sense, we acquired the freehold of our ground two years ago. For anybody, that is a massive foundation for their business and their activity. We have the ground in perpetuity unless we do something foolish, and we have no intention of doing anything foolish.

“Having that ground gives us that real strength in any discussion we might have with anybody as to what we might try to do in the future. Coupled with the history and heritage, you begin to create quite an interesting and attractive story for anyone to listen to.

“You then look at our geographic location, and it’s an obvious fact to state that there is no senior rugby club above us in Kent or Essex or east of Saracens, let’s say. The powers that be at Twickenham would like to see something in Yorkshire and they would like to see something in the South East. And there’s a very decent-sized population in the South East.

“We have a reasonable footprint which is adjacent to the A2, it’s adjacent on one side to the south circular, it has got great transport systems, and we have a strong relationship with our local MP and also a good relationship with our local councillors.”

The short-term target is to try to finish above seventh place in the Champ, which was the highest position the club achieved, in the 1995-96 season. With 168 years of history to protect and maintain, the club intend to take their time. If they are to make a serious bid for a franchise, they want to do so with firm foundations.

Ticehurst says he has already received proposals from developers, including plans for a stadium. “You would not believe the amount of interest we have had. As soon as you own a piece of property in south-east London, the amount of interest you get from various people with different ideas about how to utilise it is amazing,” he added.

“There are huge opportunities in front of us and we have just got to pick our way very sensitively and sensibly through which ones we go for.

“We are keeping our feet on the ground. Right now, we are cementing what we are doing, maintaining our healthy balance sheet and looking after the club financially, and then saying to anyone who wants to have a chat, you would be welcome.”