Chad Valley toys first appeared around 1920 although the idea first occurred around the 1830's.. They were originally a printing company that had been trading for up to ninety years.

The first games were mainly simple picture card games. The name Chad Valley was used because the original company, Johnson Brothers, moved to a Valley next to the river Chad.

After Steiff bears grew in popularity, Chad Valley designed their own bear. However, it was not just bears that Chad Valley Toys produced. Dolls, Gollies and Jigsaw Puzzles were also produce along with a number of other soft toys and games.

Around the post World War I years, Chad Valley produced some china faced dolls with felt bodies, clothes and glass eyes. Later, from around 1920, they experimented with new materials, including celluloid. These dolls carried the lable "Chad Valley Hygienic Toys".

In the 1930's Chad Valley produced some "Royal" dolls. These were Princess Elizabeth who is now our queen and Princess Margaret. They also produced dolls of Snow White which were boxed with the Seven Dwarfs. The faces on the Snow White dolls were hand painted. Later in the 1950's Chad Valley produced some "Television Stars" such as Sooty, Sweep and Sue. Chad Valley sales rocketed at this time when one of the glove puppets revealed the Chad Valley label on a national television broadcast of Sooty and Sweep.

Chad Valley was sold to Palitoy in 1978.