It has been a time of memorable moments, low points and drama aplenty as Vale reach landmark

PORT Vale are celebrating their 150th anniversary back in League One after clinching promotion. Lifelong fan and historian PHIL SHERWIN looks at the history of the Valiants...

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PORT Vale were formed in January 1876 according to testimonies from those who were at the 50th birthday dinner in 1926.

It is often said that it is somewhat unique not being named after the name of a place, but that is a bit of a misnomer, as although not a city or a town, Port Vale was certainly an area 40 years or more before the football club came into being.

The 'Staffordshire Sentinel' referred to forthcoming marriages as being Mr or Miss so and so being from Port Vale etc, as well as it being used in sales ads.

It has since been absorbed into Middleport but around 1850 there was Port Vale Wharf on the Trent and Mersey canal, Port Vale Corn Mill (still there but dilapidated in Milvale Street), the Port Vale Inn in what is now Burgess Street, Port Vale brickworks, Port Vale House, Port Vale cricket club and the only remnant still in use, Port Vale Street, which linked Newcastle Street to the Wharf.

The Vale's first ground was at The Meadows at the bottom end of Limekiln Lane, which is now Scott Lidgett Road.

They moved to what is now Westport Lake and Moorland Road, where the bottom end of Burslem Park is, and changed their name to Burslem Port Vale in 1884.

Two years later they moved to the Athletic Ground in Cobridge, where now stands the Golden Park Nursing home in Greyhound Way, near Cobridge lights.

The club turned professional in 1885, paying their best players 12p a week, equivalent to £20 today.

In 1892 they became founder members of the newly-formed Second Division of the Football League, but made an inauspicious start by arriving half an hour late for their first game away to Small Heath Alliance (now Birmingham City), and with only 10 men after striker Billy Beats missed the train! Vale lost 5-1.

They failed reelection in 1896, but returned two years later after a huge FA Cup shock in defeating First Division leaders Sheffield United 2-1 after a replay.