Manningham Rugby Football Club,which was formed in 1876, played games at Cardigan Fields in the Carlisle Road area of Bradford.

[1] When their ground was sold to facilitate the construction of Drummond School, the club bought one-third of the Valley Parade site in Manningham,[4] taking a short-term lease on the rest of the land in time to play there for the 1886–1887 season.

[1] The new ground and the road upon which it was built adopted the area's name Valley Parade, which was derived from the steep hillside below Manningham.

[1] The club spent £1,400 appointing designers to oversee the excavation and levelling of the land, and moved a one-year-old stand from Carlisle Road to the highest part of the new ground.

[9] Manningham RFC continued playing until 1903, when financial difficulties caused by relegation at the turn of the 20th century[10] prompted club officials to change codes from rugby league to association football.

[12][14] As a result of alterations first implemented in 1897,[15] City players originally changed in a shed behind one end of the ground and visiting teams used the old rugby club's dressing rooms at the back of the nearby Belle Vue Hotel.

As a result, The Football Association (FA) closed the ground for 14 days, ordering City to switch its changing rooms to the nearby Artillery Barracks for the 1906–07 season.

[10] The improvements allowed Bradford City to set their attendance record of 39,146 on 11 March 1911 against Burnley during the club's FA-Cup-winning run.

[20] On 17 March 1932, Bradford City paid Midland Railway Company £3,750 for the remaining two-thirds of the site to become outright owners of the ground, which was now 45 years old.

[22] Further improvements to the stand were made in 1969, ready for the club's FA Cup tie with Division One side Tottenham Hotspur on 3 January 1970,[22] which ended in a 2–2 draw in front of 23,000 fans.

[23] The cost of the work forced the club to sell Valley Parade to Bradford Corporation for £35,000, but it was bought back in 1979 for the same price.

Valley Parade's first floodlights cost £3,000 and were mounted on telegraph poles running along each side of the ground, and were first used for a match against Hull City on 20 December 1954.

[22] In 1985, the football-ground writer Simon Inglis described the view from the main stand, which was still the same as when it was in 1908, as "like watching football from the cockpit of a Sopwith Camel" because of its antiquated supports and struts.

[26] On 11 May 1985, 56 people died and at least 265 were injured in the Bradford City stadium fire at Valley Parade's main stand; it was one of the UK's worst sporting disasters.

FollowingCity's promotion to Division One in 1996, the club's chairman Geoffrey Richmond announced the construction of a 4,500-seat stand on the Midland Road side.

The roof of the Kop, which was the largest safe-standing terrace in England at the time,[33] was removed and the capacity reduced during City's 1998–99 promotion season to prepare for a summer £6.5 million rebuilding programme.

The rest of this side is taken up by a brick building in the south-west corner of the stadium that houses the club's changing rooms and security offices.

[4][54] From early 2010, the area near the store includes a dental surgery, which will be run by NHS Bradford and Airedale in partnership with the football club.

[65]In 1986, Sir Oliver Popplewell published his inquiry into the fire, which led to the introduction of new safety legislation for sports grounds across England.

[27] The forensic scientist David Woolley believed the cause of the fire was a discarded cigarette or a match that had dropped through gaps between the seating to a void below the stand where rubbish had built up.

[27] The stand's wooden roof was due to be replaced the day after the Lincoln match because it did not meet the safety regulations required for Division Two, in which the team would be playing in the following season.

[4] Bradford City's senior team played home games at other grounds in West Yorkshire for 19 months while Valley Parade was rebuilt.

[72] Valley Parade's next international came seven years later when Bradford City hosted an under-19s European Championship qualifying game, in which England defeated Slovakia 4–1.

[73] The England women's team have also played at Valley Parade, including their 1994 first home match under the auspices of The Football Association (FA) against Spain.

[74] Bradford (Park Avenue) have played 29 games at Valley Parade, including a 2–0 friendly victory over Swiss side AC Lugano in 1962, and all of their home fixtures in 1973–1974, their last season before the club's extinction.

[6] The record attendance at Valley Parade is 39,146 for Bradford City's FA Cup fourth round tie against Burnley on 11 March 1911.

[80] The lowest attendance for a league home match at Valley Parade is 1,249, which occurred on 15 May 1981, for a Division Four fixture with Hereford United.

City's official highest-average attendance at Valley Parade since then is 18,551 for the 1928–29 promotion season from Division Three (North),[81] although the club reported an average of 22,585 in 1920–21.

[85] The highest crowd for a Bradford Northern fixture at Valley Parade was 20,973 on 13 February 1926 for a Challenge Cup game against Keighley, which finished 2–2.

[2] In 2000, as part of the expansion of Valley Parade, the club drew up a green transport plan to ease traffic congestion around the ground.