History
In the beginning
The club’s unique name of Port Vale has attracted much interest and continued debate to this day. Port Vale is one of only two English professional football clubs that are not named after a geographical location, the other being Arsenal.
Here is a selection of the most popular theories concerning the origins of the name Port Vale and the formation of the club. It could be that the actual formation is due to one or several of these possibilities:
- A Port Vale cricket club was in existence in 1875, which lent its name to the football club.
- Port Vale was formed during a meeting at the Port Vale House, from where the club took its name.
- The players who founded the club lived near such places as: Port Vale Wharf, Port Vale Street, Port Vale Corn Mills and Port Vale House.
- Nearby Porthill Victoria (for whom founder players John and Enoch Hood may have previously played) played upon a hill, therefore the team of the valley may have chosen Port Vale as “a rather natural choice” of team name.
- The name came from a shortening of “Longport Vale.”
- Port Vale was formed from a merger of Wolstanton, Middleport and Burslem St. Paul’s.
- Port Vale was originally a brickworks team. This theory is based on the existence of bricks with “Burslem Port Vale” and “Port Vale” marked upon them.
Year of formation
1876
Whilst the actual details of the birth of Port Vale is shrouded in mystery due to the existence of the many theories outlined above, it has been generally accepted that Port Vale was formed in 1876 as follows:
In 1875 a group of men formed an athletics club with the main purpose of playing cricket. A year later they met again and decided to form a football club. The meeting was in an area known locally as Port Vale and although this was not an official place on a map, nearby were places such as Port Vale Wharf on the canal, Port Vale Brickworks, Port Vale Street and Port Vale Corn Mill. The meeting took place in Port Vale House.
1879
The Port Vale club crest contains the date “1876” as the club’s year of foundation and as a result, in 1976, the club celebrated its official “centenary” year. However, the following cutting from an 1893 newspaper article claims that Port Vale football club was actually formed in 1879 contradicting the official and generally accepted date of 1876.
This article was originally published in The Golden Penny newspaper on 12th November 1893.
The newspaper article backs up research by well-known Port Vale historian Jeff Kent who found no evidence of the club being founded in 1876 and has stated that he believes the club was more likely to have been founded in 1879.
To back up his claim, Kent has also found a quote from Port Vale chairman Robert Audley writing in 1907 that the club was “an organisation of twenty-eight years standing.”
Grounds
Whether formed in 1876 or 1879 it is widely accepted that the first ground that Port Vale played their home games at was the Meadows, Longport which is now Scott Lidgett Road. They used this ground until 1880 when they moved the short distance to Westport near to the place which is now Westport Lake.
Westport proved to be difficult during the winter months as the pitch was prone to flooding and so in 1884 they moved again this time to Burslem and in the process the club changed its name to Burslem Port Vale. The pitch used was opposite where Vale Park now stands in the area currently occupied by Burslem park.
The old Recreation Ground Hanley
Just two years later and a third move took Vale to the Cobridge Athletic Ground, later to become Cobridge Greyhound Track and it was whilst playing here that in 1891 the club was elected to the Football League as members of Division Two.
The club stayed at Cobridge for 27 years, although it struggled financially for much of this time until in 1913 it gained permission from Stoke-on-Trent council to develop the Kent Street Recreation ground in Hanley. The new ground was re-named the Old Recreation Ground and had room for 30,000 fans. It was located where the car park for the Potteries Shopping Centre now stands.
In 1944, following problems with the City Council over the lease of the Old Recreation Ground, Vale arranged to sell the ground and a new thirteen and a half acre site was purchased near to Burslem station.
A 70,000 capacity was ambitiously planned with parking for 1,000 cars along with a new entrance to the ground from the train station.
In 1946, the construction of the new ground was financed by the sale of part of the Burslem site to a colliery. Although this provided the funds to develop the new ground, the mine workings were to prove a constant and costly hazard in later redevelopments.
But in 1948 the cost of the new ground was rising steeply. Work had already cost £13,000 and at £100 the pitch was “the most expensive ever laid in Britain”.
An artist impression of Vale Park prior to construction, looking towards the Lorne St stand.
However, with the lease on the Old Rec running out, Vale pressed ahead and arranged to complete the new ground in stages. The two terraces and Bycars end would be concentrated on for the time being and the main stand on Lorne St would be delayed until 1950. A reduced initial capacity of 40,000 was announced for the newly named ‘Vale Park.’
The ground opened in time for the 1950-1 season. It had cost £50,000, had a capacity of 40,000 and a vast playing surface of 115 by 83 yards. After finally getting approval, the old Swan Passage stand from the Old Rec was assembled on the Bycars End to provide some much needed cover.
A crowd of 32,042 turned up for the first match and saw Walter Aveyard score the first goal at the new ground in a 1-0 win over Newport County. The only disappointment was the club record sale of star striker Ronnie Allen to West Bromwich Albion – to help ease increasingly stretched club finances.
Drag the slider left and right to see a comparison of how Vale Park looked in the 1980’s compared with how it looks today.
The image on the left shows the Lorne Street side of the ground as it was for many years, mainly terracing in keeping with the majority of the rest of the stadium. The large terraces enabled a crowd of over 49,000, a Vale Park record, to watch Vale play Aston Villa in the FA Cup in 1960.
The image on the right is the fully seated Lorne Street stand today. This includes 36 executive boxes, hospitality facilities, an Enterprise Business Centre and the Burslem Children’s Centre.
Aerial view of Vale Park taken from the Lorne St side of the ground. The stadium is now all seated with a capacity in excess of 19,000.