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Rotherham is a metropolitan borough of about 250,000 people in the county of South Yorkshire, England. It is also the town of about 100,000 people which is not unnaturally the centre of the borough. X marks the spot on the map. The borough includes suburban areas, rural villages, open countryside and the towns of Dinnington, Maltby and Wath-upon-Dearne.
The area now covered by the borough was largely agricultural until the 16th Century. Rotherham was a prosperous market town with a renowned livestock market and a magnificent church. A grammar school was founded in the town towards the end of the 15th Century. In places in the borough iron ore had been mined since Celtic times, and iron made in small-scale industrial operations. As demand grew industry reared its ugly head and the iron and steel industry became the major employer in the town until the 1970s. Coal mining was the other major industry for which the Borough of Rotherham was famous. There are coal measures under many parts of the area and during the late 19th and early 20th Centuries collieries were sunk. Vast complexes of pit, spoil heap, slurry pond, coke oven and concentration yards (railway sidings) soiled the landscape and polluted the air until most of them closed in the 1970s and 1980s. Despite the demise of most of the collieries and the closure of many steelworks Rotherham is still an industrial town.
Rotherham The Unofficial Website is just that; it is about Rotherham, it has no connection or allegiance to other organisations and it is a website. The opinions expressed on these pages are personal and subjective. I have tried to cover a variety of subjects about Rotherham of interest to citizens of the town, expatriate Rotherhamites, regular visitors, casual visitors and the just plain surfing. I hope you find something you like. Please come in and have a look around.
Rotherham News
HERITAGE INSPIRED works with all heritage faith sites across South Yorkshire, to increase the access to and awareness of their heritage. HERITAGE INSPIRED is funded by the Heritage Lottery Fund and the East Peak Innovation Partnership. Finalists in THE BEST TOURISM EXPERIENCE at The White Rose Awards 2010! Website www.heritageinspired.org.uk and find under News.
Free parking will end as promised government funding has been axed. Free After 3 is expected to end in September 2010. Free Saturdays are expected to end early in the new year.
Songs of Steel Exhibition opened 15 June 2010. More information.
Rotherham Railway Station closed for refurbishment from 8 July 2010. All services fully operational please look for temporary facilities. More information.