In 1969 Lightwater Valley started life as a small self-pick fruit farm attraction which was quite popular with the local community. The farm was owned by the Staveley family, who had been in ownership of the land way back until 1516 when Cardinal Wolsey handed the grounds over to John Staveley. The farm was dealt a crippling blow in 1976 as a severe draught was brought to the region, having a huge effect on the strawberry crop which was the main source of the farm's revenue. Later that year a lake was excavated to help reduce the effects of a future draught, the very same lake that is at the park today!

The lake became very popular with guests, with many deciding to go swimming in it! Soon afterwards the park added Fort William Adventure Playground in 1977 followed by many other small attractions such as Crazy Golf, resulting in an increase in attendance figures! Lightwater Valley was becoming a major local tourist attraction but the best was yet to come!

Lightwater Valley Theme Park was born in 1987 after Rat Ride was built. The ride was considered to be one of the best in the country, the future for Lightwater Valley looked promising! Over the years more and more rides were added and the park was officially established and up and running!

The park kept growing and growing and they got themselves a massive hit when Soopa Loopa was brought to the park! The ride was the only double loop rollercoaster in the UK! Lightwater Valley was shaping up to be the country's greatest theme park, yet Robert Staveley wanted more and had a major ride in the future plans!

In 1990 construction began on the world's longest rollercoatser! The nation was hooked on updates, competitions were held on Radio to name the ride! Finally, costing £5.2 million and over 1.5 miles long, The Ultimate was open to the public in 1991! The Ultimate reached incredible speeds and set staggering drops over 100ft! Lightwater Valley was flying high but sadly, it had reached its limit. Robert was sent plunging into debt and decided to hand the park over to his children, John and Lynne Staveley.

Over the years many more rides and attractions were added but didn't match standards set by earlier additions. Eventually there was a change of ownership from a private family firm to Queensborough Holdings, who bought the park for £5.2 million in 1997. Queensborough Holdings were also in ownership of Pleasurewood Hills Theme Park at the time, which resulted in both parks sharing the same mascot Woody the Bear. The parks were somewhat 'sisters' and operated under Leisure Great Britain of which Queensborough Holdings financed. However, the new owners put the park back up for sale within 11 months of buying it as they decided to re-focus their business in the current market. However, no bid was accepted during the following few years. The park was given a new lease of life in February 2001 when Queensborough Holdings handed ownership over to Heritage GB, a company which was formed by Queensborough Holdings Chairman Kevin Leech and his son Allan. Therefore, the park was simply owned by a re-branded company of its previous owners. Allan Leech bought £4.75 million worth of shares in Lightwater Valley Attractions Ltd which was the new holding division for the park, in other words they run the park while Heritage GB financed the initial buyout using Allan's money from Ball Investments Ltd. Unfortunatley, the new management were handed a killer setback when an accident on the Twister cost a girl her life. The park received terrible press, long court dates and its great reputation was crumbling before them whilst gate numbers fell.

The park began to stabilise itself with the addition of the Eagles Claw and the Grizzly Bear the following years, averaging gate figures of 320,000, but in 2006 the park suffered another setback when Lightwater Valley Attractions were fined a total of £75,000 after pleading guilty on charges of Health & Safety breaches following the death of Gemma Savage on The Twister in 2001. However, this did signal the end of this incident and the park could move on.

In 2007 plans for an ambitious future development were released; Lightwater Valley Holiday Village. The original plans and idea first orginated somewhat 10 years before-hand, only to be shelved for reasons unknown. However, it is known that original plans included a small hotel and leisure development called The Villa and Crystal Castle which were both later dropped. Three years later (2000), the planning committee approved a revised scheme, subject to a legal agreement covering road improvements at the clock tower in Ripon, traffic calming in North Stainley, a shuttle bus service from the city and a green travel plan. The agreement was never completed due to unforeseen circumstances.

In 2007 the park decided to revive the plans only to have them rejected following objections from local residents after they were concerned about the increase in traffic. Lightwater Valley decided to appeal against the decision and the inquiry took place in September 2008. Unfortunately, the appeal was turned down after the inspector came to the conclusion that the overall scale of the development did not match the scale of the direct benefits for theme park and therefore the holiday village was unwarranted. This came as huge shock to everybody as Lightwater Valley had previously stated in the inquiry that the holiday village was essential for the park's long-term future. This however does mark the end, the park are currently considering whether they should submit a fresh application that would see the village reduced in size.