The second issue with 44 pages features Valley Parade, home of Bradford City AFC with most of the photographs taken during the club’s successful 2024/25 promotion season. Thanks to discounted ticket prices, crowds at Valley Parade averaged just below 18,000 last season and the last four games each had attendances of more than 20,000 which is relatively unprecedented for a fourth tier club.
This year marks the fortieth anniversary of the disaster in May, 1985 when 56 were killed and 265 injured as a consequence of the main stand burning down during a game. Memorials to the disaster can be found outside the main stand as well as in Centenary Square (opposite City Hall) in the centre of Bradford.
The ground is one of the oldest continued use sporting venues in the country having been first adopted in 1886 by Manningham FC, a then rugby union club which later abandoned rugby in 1903 in favour of association football and a relaunch as Bradford City AFC who inherited the ground as well as the rugby club’s claret and amber colours (albeit opting for stripes instead of hoops). It is unique among senior grounds in that it is built on a hillside which has had implications for its development as well as its cost of maintenance.
Valley Parade has been extensively redeveloped since the disaster of 1985 and the current configuration of the stadium is the same as that commissioned during the club’s brief stay in the Premier League between 1999-2001.
Anyone interested in the history of the ground or Bradford City AFC can discover more from VINCIT, the online journal of Bradford sport history (bradfordsporthistory.com) that is edited by myself, my blog or from my books which narrate the origins and early history of sport in the district (bantamspast.net).
A5 size, 44 pages.
Advertised price includes p&p to a UK address.
The second issue with 44 pages features Valley Parade, home of Bradford City AFC with most of the photographs taken during the club’s successful 2024/25 promotion season. Thanks to discounted ticket prices, crowds at Valley Parade averaged just below 18,000 last season and the last four games each had attendances of more than 20,000 which is relatively unprecedented for a fourth tier club.
This year marks the fortieth anniversary of the disaster in May, 1985 when 56 were killed and 265 injured as a consequence of the main stand burning down during a game. Memorials to the disaster can be found outside the main stand as well as in Centenary Square (opposite City Hall) in the centre of Bradford.
The ground is one of the oldest continued use sporting venues in the country having been first adopted in 1886 by Manningham FC, a then rugby union club which later abandoned rugby in 1903 in favour of association football and a relaunch as Bradford City AFC who inherited the ground as well as the rugby club’s claret and amber colours (albeit opting for stripes instead of hoops). It is unique among senior grounds in that it is built on a hillside which has had implications for its development as well as its cost of maintenance.
Valley Parade has been extensively redeveloped since the disaster of 1985 and the current configuration of the stadium is the same as that commissioned during the club’s brief stay in the Premier League between 1999-2001.
Anyone interested in the history of the ground or Bradford City AFC can discover more from VINCIT, the online journal of Bradford sport history (bradfordsporthistory.com) that is edited by myself, my blog or from my books which narrate the origins and early history of sport in the district (bantamspast.net).
A5 size, 44 pages.
Advertised price includes p&p to a UK address.
The cost includes P&P to a UK address. Please contact me if you require delivery abroad.
