Hooton Roberts
The village of Hooton Roberts is indeed up at the top of the hill and largely consists of some very nice old and refurbished property if you can stand the traffic on the busy Doncaster Road that cuts right through it. There is a church dedicated to St. John the Baptist, some lovely old converted farm buildings and the old manor house now The Earl of Strafford public house. Down the road towards Kilnhurst are the remains of quarries, an area marked on my map as Common Plantation which I am sure has signs up saying it is a nature reserve. On the other side of the road are the former Rotherham United Training Ground, Hooton Lodge (now a restaurant) and another sign I'd not noticed until a recently Elm Tree Farm Fisheries.
Hooton means High town or settlement or Hill town or hoo in Saxon times could also meant house and Robert was the name of the one time owner. Before 1066 the land at Hooton Roberts was held by three Saxon thanes. After the Norman conquest Hooton Roberts became part of the estates granted to Roger de Busli. It is possible there was mill here but the Domesday Book does not make it clear if it was here or in other Roger de Busli estates at Denaby. By the late 13th Century the manor was split in two halves, one held by the families of Tinsley and the other de Hooton. The 'Roberts' portion of the name probably derives from Robert de Hooton, father and son, who held half the manor at this time. The two families were later united and, in the reign of Edward II, Isabella de Tinsley married William de Wentworth of Wentworth Woodhouse. From this marriage the manor descended in a direct line to the Earls Fitzwilliam.
In the 1379 Poll Tax returns, the resident lord of the manor was James Clarel, Esq. who was assessed at 40d. There were two substantial tradesmen among the 57 tax payers; William de Hoton, husbandman and draper, and Thomas de Wyntworth, husbandman and mercer, assessed at 12d. The presence of these two plus William Webster, weaver, shows that the village supported a woollen industry.
The population of the village was for a long time mostly employed in agricultural trades. At its highest it was 241 in 1861 and is now about 150. Up to 1960s all the buildings in the parish, with the exception of the church, rectory and school, belonged to the Wentworth Estate. About this time the Fitzwilliams of Wentworth began to sell some of their assets and many of the barns and farm buildings were sold off and converted into homes, and very nice some of them are too.
Hooton Roberts Manor
The manor house at Hooton Roberts was for many years the dower house of the Wentworth family, where the widow was put out to grass when the eldest son inherited the main house at Wentworth. In the 17th Century the widow of the famous Earl of Strafford, chief councillor to Charles I lived here after his betrayal by the king and subsequent execution. The Countess was the last of the Wentworth family to live at Hooton Roberts.
Hooton Roberts Church
There may have been a Saxon church here but the foundations of the present building of St John the Baptist on Doncaster Road date from about 1100. The Countess, widow of the Earl of Strafford, was buried in the church under the altar steps of when she died. In the 1900s workmen found three skeletons there, one of an elderly woman, one of a child, and one of a man with the bones of his neck cut through - so it seems that the widow had brought her husband's remains home.
The structure was badly damaged by fire in 1700 and the surviving north wall was incorporated in the new church. The fire also destroyed the parish registers and records. The parish was served by a rector and although it was not large or populous it must have been a decent living back in the days when he received the great and the small tithes from the villagers and farmers. The church contains a 12th Century coffin lid and 13th Century stained glass. The tower dates from the 15th Century. Contact 44 (0)1709 850695 (2009).