The land Edgeley Park is built on was originally donated to Stockport by the Sykes Family (Owners of Sykes Bleaching Company) in the late 1800s, for sporting use. The stadium was built in 1901 for rugby league club Stockport RFC. Stockport County moved there from Green Lane in 1902, needing to find a bigger stadium to play in following their entrance into the Football League two years earlier. Stockport County's first game at Edgeley Park was a 1-1 draw against Gainsborough Trinity in 1902.
The Sykes family sold the land Edgeley Park stood on to tenants Stockport County in 1932 for a then price of £1600.
The Main Stand of the ground, which at the time was made of wood, burned down in a fire in 1935, destroying all of Stockport County's previous records; therefore, apart from having to rebuild a significant section of the ground, the club had to undertake a massive task to piece together information about previous results, playing squads, etc.
Following the Bradford City stadium fire in 1985, work began to remove all wooden structures and standing terraces from the stadium, which drastically reduced capacity, but increased safety and ensured that the ground complies to Football League regulations. This work was eventually full completed by 2001.The railway end being the last stand to be converted from a standing terrace to seating. The stadium's name is often simply abbreviated to 'EP' by fans.
The record attendance is 27,833, when Liverpool visited Edgeley Park to play Stockport County in the 5th round of the FA Cup in 1950.
The floodlight system was first used with an opening friendly match against Fortuna '54 Geleen of Holland on 16 October 1956, whose side included four members of the Dutch national team that had defeated Belgium the previous week.
The ground once held two matches by the England international football team on the same day. On 14 January 1958 the England squad were due to play training matches at nearby Maine Road, home of Manchester City but the pitch was frozen. Edgeley Park's pitch was deemed playable so it was decided to hold the matches in Stockport instead.
The first game saw England draw 2–2 with a Manchester City XI, and the second saw the England senior side defeat the England U23 side 1–0.
Chester City played a home Rumbelows Cup tie against Manchester City at Edgeley Park on 8 October 1991, owing to safety concerns regarding their temporary Moss Rose home.[2] Stockport County have undertaken an entire redevelopment of the ground since moving into the ground, most notably the building of the Cheadle End which opened in 1995.[3] Edgeley Park was (until County's relegation in May 2011) the closest league football ground to the River Mersey - it is actually closer than Liverpool's Anfield, Everton's Goodison Park or Tranmere Rovers' Prenton Park.
On 31 July 2015 Edgeley Park passed into the ownership of Stockport Council who are going to rent the ground back to the club on a commercial basis not costing the tax payer anything. Thus ending Brian Kennedy's association with Edgeley Park.[citation needed] In July 2020; due to the COVID -19 pandemic in the UK, sporting venues had their capacities cut. Edgeley Park capacity was reduced to 2,700. However no fans were allowed into the stadium for the start of the 2020-21 season. This did not stop the stadium being re developed with new seating put into the Railway End, and new external cladding added to the Cheadle End.