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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 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 and this survived until the 1960s.
From the middle of the 17th Century Rotherham became increasingly industrialised as the iron ore deposits and coal seams found throughout the borough were exploited. In the 21st Century only one of the pits survives. Iron and steel are still produced though not in the massive quantities of earlier times. Rotherham is still an industrial area with everything from small units to large companies manufacturing a wide variety of goods.
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. 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.
Rotherham 2012
In 2012 Riverside House, the new council offices off Main Street are already in occupation and are due to be formally opened in the spring. The various other council building on the other side of town are being run down or closed in anticipation of this. They will then be demolished: in January Crinoline House is already suffering the wrecking ball.
The York and Lancaster Museum is closed and new facilities will open in Bailey House later in 2012.
I believe the Art Gallery is closed but have no details about its future.
The various libraries will move in 2012: I believe into Riverside House, though the archives are to be kept in Bailey House.
All the various groups that use the Art Centre will have to move somewhere else but so far I have no details.
Rotherham united's new ground New York Stadium is expected to open in Summer 2012.