The
Unofficial Website
Recreation Grounds & Playing Fields
There are recreation grounds and playing fields all over the Borough of Rotherham. Every pit
village had its field where you played football in the mud every winter and cricket in the mud every summer. Some of these have gone but most are still around though not always as well
used as they used to be. This is not a full guide by any means and, sorry, but as one bit of grass looks much like another I am not about to undertake an exhaustive survey of this
subject.
The main site is Herringthorpe Valley Playing Fields where there are football pitches, rugby pitches, hockey pitches and in the summer cricket fields. The changing rooms are run down and have been vandalised so often I'm surprised they don't fall down. In June 2006 yet another set of yobs has broken in, ripped pipes off the walls, flooded the changing rooms and set fires in other areas. The changing rooms are still open for the use of players. The children's playing area had now been vandalised out of existence. In August 2003 a couple of swings have been re-erected but otherwise is still forlorn.
In 2006 work has commenced and new pathways are being laid across the fields, additional lighting, bins and seating added. There is also be new boundary fencing erected to keep off the cars and motorbikes that regularly churn up the grass - we'll soon see if that works. Youths on motorbikes have been using Herringthorpe Playing Fields unhindered for quite some time as have youths in cars who all think that it is entirely acceptable to use playing fields as racing tracks. New gates are being put up. This little lot is going to cost around £420,000 but no mention is being made about rebuilding the changing rooms or surfacing the extra car park. Work has also started demolishing the remains of the old council plant nurseries behind the changing rooms. These have been vandalised and burnt out many times over the last few years. I have been told that Rotherham Rugby Club have bought this area and are going to re-develop it but I have no further details. Actually this is wrong - there is talk of the Rugby Club taking out a lease on the land and then developing it, but in September 2006, it seems that this has got no further than talk. In 2007, following yet more acts of vandalism, the changing rooms are being demolished. I wonder where the various players who use the field will go to the loo? It's an awful long way to Herringthorpe Stadium if you get caught short.
As I understand that the area of Herrinthorpe Playing Fields was left to the people of Rotherham for recreational purposes. Some years ago the spectre of the council selling off part of the field for housing development raised it's ugly head. Admittedly it is a bit of the field that is really little use for sports. At the time there was a great outcry and nothing came of the plans. In 2006, like all good spectres, this one is resurrecting itself.
At the top end of the playing fields is the Athletics Stadium and Herringthorpe Leisure Centre.
There are also large playing fields at Greasbrough which seem to be largely official football pitches and unofficial golf ranges.