Vale Park became Port Vale's sixth ground in 1950 after the club moved from the Old Recreation Ground in Hanley. It had taken six years to build and was on the site of a giant marl hole, which still contains numerous pit shafts. There is no evidence of anybody actually falling down one, though supporters will tell you of many players who have "disappeared" during games over the years.
The new ground was a lavish project for the time with a projected capacity of 70,000, leading to it being dubbed "The Wembley of the North". Unfortunately, money troubles led to the cancellation of the grandstands on the Lorne Street and Bycars. Even so it had the most expensive pitch ever laid at the time and the whole project had cost over £50,000, covering an area of some 18 and a half acres.
Improvements over the years saw the ground capacity increase to 44,000 in 1956 and a high of 50,000 by 1959. Nowadays the official capacity is given as 18,947.
The grand opening took place on 24th August 1950, a Thursday night, with a kick off of 5.20pm (no floodlights in those days!) and the name Vale Park was announced at the opening ceremony attended by numerous dignitaries from the football world. Admission cost 1/3d, the equivalent of 6p. A crowd of 30,042 saw the first game, a 1-0 victory over NewportCounty in Division Three (South) with Walter Aveyard scoring the historic goal.
Since then Vale have played over 1,400 competitive games here in all competitions. The largest crowd was 49,768 for an FA Cup Round tie against Aston Villa in 1960, although it has been declared full with over 42,000 crammed in for cup-ties v Blackpool and Liverpool in 1954 and 1964 respectively.
Everyone with an interest in football has heard of the famous Matthews final when Blackpool won the FA Cup in 1953, but not mentioned half enough is that their next defeat in the competition was here at Vale Park in 1954 when Albert Leake scored twice for the Valiants.
In January 1988 Vale beat Terry Venables' Tottenham Hotspur 2-1 in the 4th Round of the FA Cup here in a game that put Vale firmly on the map.
The last big cup tie staged here was a 4th Round victory over the then FA Cup holders Everton in February 1996 when goals from Bogie and McCarthy helped us to a 2-1 victory.
Floodlights were first used at Vale Park for a friendly against West Brom in September 1958.
Hamil End
The first part of the ground you enter is the Hamil Road End, traditionally the part of the ground where visiting supporters are housed, although it was mixed until the changing society meant that visitors should have their own exclusive section from the late 1970's to the present day.
Originally built as a huge open terrace, it was at one point the highest part of the ground before the 'hilly' part was levelled off in 1978 and an electronic scoreboard was installed in 1988.
Cover was first put on the terrace in 1992 and was fully seated in 1995.
Railway Stand/Paddock
This part of the ground was originally a huge open terrace when the ground opened in 1950. A lot of present day fans will wonder why it is called the Railway Stand/Paddock, but just the other side of the Co-op car park once stood Burslem Railway Station, part of the loop line closed in the late 60s. A few years later the lines were taken up and never seen again.
A year after the ground opened in 1951, around 600 seats were installed, but it wasn't until July 1954 that a proper stand was built, at a cost of £25,000. This contained 4,500 seats at the back and had a covered terrace in front for 12,000. The basic structure of the stand hasn't changed at all, but the seats at the back were replaced in the early 90's and then seats were added at the front.
Family Stand
This area began life merely as the corner section of the Bycars End, but was then fenced off and remained unused from 1973 onwards. It was converted in to the family area and opened in February 1989 against Wolves.
Bycars End
The Bycars Road End, to give it its full name, was a large open end when the ground opened in 1950, though it did have 350 seats at the back. Terracing was laid in 1959, increasing capacity to 6,500, which in turn helped cater for around 50,000.
It became the traditional 'home' end for supporters, but following promotion in 1989 the Taylor report deemed the end unsafe and it was forced to close for a period.
It was then decided to build a complete new stand and the present structure opened in 1992.
The Disabled Stand
The original disabled stand stood at the other end of the Lorne Street next to Hamil End and was believed to be the first purpose built disabled stand in the Football League when it opened in 1989. The present structure contains all the same features with access for wheelchair users and their helpers and opened during the 1999/2000 season.
Lorne Street Stand
When the ground first opened the Lorne Street consisted of two open terrace areas either side of the players tunnel with the Directors Box perched on top. This made the ground unique because there wasn't another Football League ground where the Directors Box was built separate to the main stand.
Building work on the new Lorne Street Stand started in the late 90's, but because of financial constraints, the work had to be suspended. Work has since been resumed and the stand is now almost complete.The Lorne Street contains the dressing rooms, offices, Sponsors Suite, Executive Boxes as well as Directors Boxes and the Valiants Suite. Recent work has seen the addition of a Childen's Centre and also the Port Vale Enterprise Centre.
