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Masbrough
Brough usually indicates a fortified settlement, though it could mean a
brook. Ma or Mas is probably a proper name because I have not found any other meaning for it. In 1220 it was called Moriksburg which may or may not come from the personal name Maurice.
The common land in Masbrough including areas of Holmes were subject to an Enclosures Act in 1765. In all 103 acres in the Masbrough area were enclosed. The railways arrived in the 1840s running on embankments along the river flats often on a very similar course to the canals. Masbrough Railway Station was busy and important and for all my childhood and well into my middle age was the only main line station for Rotherham. A new station was then developed closer to the town centre and Masbrough Station was closed, derelict, a carpet warehouse (not necessarily in that order) and is now an Indian restaurant.
In 1757 an Independent congregation was set up in Masbrough. The first building, erected in 1763, was replaced by a new one in 1777. This still existed in 1971, although no longer used as a chapel. I have not been up to see if it still exists - Yes I think that it is the carpet warehouse. The Walker family Mausoleum is still standing next door. The parish church of Masbrough St John was not built until 1864, and another parish and church of St Paul's was created in 1905 to serve the growing population.
Masbrough is also important in the history of the cooperative movement in the Nineteenth Century. The Masbrough Equitable Pioneers Society was founded on 26 April 1869. The premises owned by the Masbrough Coop were quite substantial and contained warehouses and retail shops together with the Co-operative Hall. I understand that most or all of these buildings were demolished in 1978.
My father was born and brought up in Masbrough in a little two up two down terraced house which has now been demolished. He reckoned it was a dump then, and sorry all you Masbroughians, its a dump now. The housing isn't anything to write home about and there are are still works, workshops and scrapyards and Rotherham United FC's ground at Millmoor.