20th Century Rotherham
Rotherham welcomed the 20th Century in style when the new municipal power station on Rawmarsh Road was erected in 1900. From May 1901 four steam driven generators provided electricity for the street lighting and the tramways which opened in 1903. The power station was continually being expanded to keep up with demand. In time, though it took several decades, the electricity supply was extended throughout the borough. Even in the 1930s and right up to the 1940s (and later in remoter areas) gas was still the only modern form of heating, lighting and cooking. Even now there are some areas of the borough not on the gas supply so before the electric arrived it was candles and oil lamps. Piped water and sewage did not arrive in some remote parts of the Borough until the 1940s.
In 1901 the population of Rotherham was 53,348 and there were 10,804 houses in habitation. The rateable value of the Borough was £182,166. The town was represented in Parliament by a Liberal, Sir W. H. Holland.
The gas works near the Don at Rotherham Bridge was rebuilt in 1901 and by 1903 supplied 11,000 customers, which must have been most of Rotherham. There were two cooling towers and a couple of gasoliers throughout my childhood but these were demolished maybe in the 1970s to make way for the new bus station on Frederick Street.
The town of Rotherham was created a county borough in 1902. Under the terms of the Balfour Act the new borough council took over responsibility for the local schools from the School Boards and there was a new round of school building.
In 1905 the Fever Hospital was replaced by a new building further up Badsley Moor Lane: the site is still used today. Rotherham Workhouse became a general hospital in 1929 when it was known as the Alma Road Public Assistance Institution, then subsequently Moorgate General Hospital, with its main entrance on Moorgate. The hospital closed in around 1980 and almost all the buildings were demolished in the late 1980s. By 2001, only a few small derelict sections of the workhouse remained. A new hospital was built further up Moorgate at Oakwood. It opened about 1980; not sure of the exact date.
Until 1909 refuse and rubbish was collected by horse and cart and dumped in a site at Northfield called Spion Kop or Mother Cush; and a hefty heap it was too. In 1909 the Borough Council built a refuse destructor opposite the power station. Seventy-five tons of domestic rubbish were burned every day to provide steam for the power station and control the build up of garbage.
There was much recruiting, marching, training and parading in Rotherham during the First World War (1914 – 1918). There were two Zeppelin raids in the area targeted at the steel works at Templeborough and Parkgate but these did little damage. The Armistice of 1918 coincided with a major outbreak of influenza - there were 294 recorded deaths.
The 1920s were a time of great political activity in the town, with the Communist party being well represented. It was also a decade of unemployment and the General Strike of 1926. In 1930 the town was officially declared a depressed area and except for a few good years I think that it had been that way ever since. Despite this many new buildings were erected and new roads and bridges opened during these years. This was called "trying to spend your way out of a depression" - we all know that one don't we? It doesn't work any more for a town than it does for an individual but the powers that be are a lot slower to call in the bailiffs. My grandfather was out of work for considerable periods in the 20s. My grandmother baked breadcakes and teacakes which my father used to hawk around the streets in a handcart. Trouble was my Dad was too soft and wouldn't take money off people who had as little as them, hence no profits and a good thick ear off my gran.
There were many new public buildings during the 1930s and public amenities were improved. A new Rotherham (Chantry) Bridge was built alongside the old medieval stone bridge. Many of the old buildings in the town centre were demolished as part of the town centre improvements - the west side of Bridgegate, the buildings in the block opposite the Church which then became All Saints Square. The College of Art and Technology was built on Howard Street in 1931.
The town of Rotherham suffered very little from German bombing raids during the Second World War unlike Sheffield next door which was regularly blitzed. Presumably the German war map had the name of the town written in very little letters and German intelligence knew little about the heavy industries and the coal mines around the borough.
Rotherham Workhouse became the Alma Road Public Assistance Institution after 1930 when the Poor Laws were repealed. However people continued to live in the workhouse until well after the Second World War. Either long term inmates had become institutionalised, or there was nowhere else to go. The workhouse in Rotherham also provided work, showers, supper and beds for tramps and other itinerants. The Welfare State was established in 1948 by the Atlee Labour Government of 1945-1950. Some time after this the institution became Moorgate General Hospital and the workhouse element eventually vanished entirely. The hospital closed in around 1980 and almost all the buildings were demolished in the late 1980s. By 2001, only a few small derelict sections remain.
According to my mother Rotherham was a pretty busy place after the war for there was still a great demand for coal and steel and there was plenty of work to be had. Rationing continued for a number of years and even as a baby in 1952 I had a ration book issued. Although my parents had bought their own house, what with the mortgage and bringing up three children, they belonged to that category of people, common around here, who did not have two halfpennies to rub together. Mind you my Dad's heavy nicotine habit and fondness for the horses did not help. I think he knew every illegal bookie between here and Huddersfield. The most distressing part of my childhood was having to share a Mars bar five ways. It was a great treat I can tell you the day I could first afford to buy a chocolate bar and scoff it all myself. Still enough of La Recherche de Rotherham perdue.
Through the fifties and sixties, despite the worst efforts of the Council, Rotherham seems to have continued to be a busy place. There was plenty of work about, albeit some of it very badly paid. Certainly from the age of fifteen I never had any trouble getting a Saturday job or work for the school summer holidays. In 1974, during one week of signing on the Dole between jobs, I was offered three other interviews. Those were the days - you're lucky to get one interview a month now, and I know people who have been signing on for years and still don't know what a job interview is.
Sometime after this Rotherham entered the doldrums and I don't think it made much headway until the very end of 20th Century. Virtually all the pits have closed and many of the pit villages have closed with them. Some of the steelworks are still about, whilst the old Steel Peech and Tozer works on Sheffield Road at Templeborough has reinvented itself as Magna Science and Adventure Centre.