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Agriculture
Since the growing of and trading in food is the absolute basis of living
in settled communities, agriculture has naturally been one of the most important functions in and around Rotherham since the human race first put down roots here.
Little is known about the history of agriculture in Rotherham in early times but cereals and vegetables will have been grown and chickens, sheep, goats and cattle kept. There was
probably an early market to trade in surplus produce.
In Roman times the commissary officer of the fort would have tried to access the food supplies locally where possible and I'm sure that the Rotherham farmers would have seen this as a fine opportunity to increase production and make money. Agriculture must have remained the most important industry in the area for many centuries after this. In 1086 the Manor of Rotherham had two ploughs, a mill, a church, meadows and pasture. Industry and manufacture had hardly reared their ugly heads.
Rotherham Beast Market
Rotherham was an important centre for the buying and selling of livestock.
"Late in the reign of Queen Elizabeth one purchaser at Rotherham came from Cartoon in Lincolnshire, forty miles to the south-east, and one seller came from Ellerburn in the Vale of Pickering, seventy miles to the north-east."
"In the early 17th Century the beast fairs at Rotherham and Wakefield attracted sellers from as far as Middleton St George in County Durham."
Hey, that was one hell of a long way to walk with your beasts and dogs in the days before motorised transport!
By the early 1800s it was one of the largest livestock markets in the area dealing in fat sheep and fat cattle as well as lean cattle and pigs. In 1865 there was an epidemic of rinderpest and the market was closed to all animals except those due for immediate slaughter. The closure lasted for more than two years by which time Sheffield had opened a cattle market themselves and stolen most of the trade. Do I hear you say Booh?
Although some trade returned Rotherham Beast Market never regained its prominence.
The market on its ancient site at the Crofts was closed for redevelopment and a new cattle market was opened in 1927 on Corporation Street. This closed due to lack of trade in 1967. I remember that every Monday in my childhood beasts, mostly cattle, were driven through the streets to the Abbattoir.
Somewhere I am sure there was a very funny story about an escaping pig 'The Rotherham One' but I can't remember it. If anybody can please enlighten me.
Rotherham Mill
There has certainly been a mill in Rotherham since 1086 and probably for many years, even centuries before that. I have no idea when people discovered that they could use water or wind to grind corn instead of a quern but I expect that it took long years for the idea to reach Rotherham. Having arrived there have always been mills in town and there is still one to the present day now owned by Rank Hovis McDougall.