Roman Rotherham
The town of Rotherham does not appear in Roman annals but then I suppose a few farmsteads on the outermost edges of empire weren't going to, were they? In Rotherham there are no mausoleums to dead Roman generals, no ruins of great temples to Jove, no hoards of buried Roman gold.
The Roman army, under the Emperor Claudius, arrived in Britain in 43AD. Many of the local Celtic tribes threw their lot in with the invaders - I don't blame them for it - for hot water and central heating I'd throw in my lot with anybody.
The Romans in Rotherham
By 50AD the legion of the 9th Hispana (later to loose their eagle fighting the Picts if I remember aright) were settled in the fortress at Lincoln. About 54AD the 4th Cohort of Gauls attached to the 9th Hispana built a large temporary fort, possibly called Morbium, in the area we now call Templeborough, to uphold Queen Cartimandua and her supporters during a power struggle amongst the confederation of Brigantian tribes. It was erected on a raised site in the angle where the Rother meets the Don, protected in the east by a broad swamp and controlling a ford across the Don to the north. At this time the hill fort at Wincobank had been extended and fortified by the Brigante tribe who were strong and powerful enough to stop the Roman advance north for a while. However the Romans with a force of 24,000 men under Agricola and Cerialis outflanked the Brigante lines and at this time the Wincobank fort seems to have succumbed to fire and sword.
The Roman road called Icknield Street (sometimes Ryknild or Riknild Street) crossed the River Don at the ford which made it a place of strategic importance. Another road ran from the fort to Brough-on-Noe (Navio) in Derbyshire.
About 100AD a stone fort or castra was built, part of the network of fortifications joined by military roads, each about a day's march apart, by which the Romans controlled England. These metalled roads provided a good system of transportation for manning and supplying the forts and could be used for the swift redeployment of troops whenever the natives were revolting. In time there came to be extensive burial grounds and a colonia, or settlement of retired soldiers near the fort. During the centuries of Roman rule the small civilian town or vicus attached to the fort and garrison was near the present Canklow Bridge over the Rother. Iron ore was smelted and worked south of the fort.
There are scant and I do meant scant remains from Roman times found in various places over the borough. Roman artefacts were found on Guilthwaite Common, Whiston when it was inclosed including quantities of spurs, stirrups, and battle-axes. Also found by labourers levelling part of the common was a pavement was exposed, into which were inserted posts with attached rings probably for tethering horses. Historians generally agree that that the road here was part of the Roman Road called Rickneild Street. Nearby a clay pot containing a hoard of small Roman coins, mostly from the reign of Constantine, was found in 1826. Coins were also found at Swinton, on Rockingham Road where they had been buried in a vase. It is postulated that that there was a small villa and Romano-British agricultural terraces nearby. A hoard of Roman coins minted between 238 and 282 was found close to the Roman Ridge where it runs near the allotments on Wagon Lane, Greasbrough although no other remains have been found.
After The Romans
In the 5th Century, about 410, the Roman armies were withdraw from Britain and the rule of law collapsed (even if it was foreign law). The fort fell into disrepair. The Anglo-Saxons, when they settled in Britain, tended to avoid places of Roman habitation, since they were afraid of the ghosts. Old maps and records variously call the place Templebarrow, Burgh (or Brough) Hill and Castle Garth before the name Templeborough stuck. Little was known of Rotherham's Roman past until various excavations took place in the 19th and 20th Centuries.
Being ready-dressed and easily available, stone from the fort was used by local landowners and farmers for their buildings. The various owners of Ickles Hall seem to have been chief culprits, but the hall, like the fort, is no longer with us either.
The steel making firm of Steel, Peech and Tozer (which like the Roman fort has now passed into history itself) acquired the Templeborough site and mills were built upon it towards the end of the First World War. The firm graciously permitting various excavations of the site before pouring the concrete.