Rotherham
Rotherham is a town of 110,000 people (2014) in South Yorkshire in the north of England, seven miles northeast of Sheffield. Its traditional industries were coal-mining, glass-blowing and steel-making. All these have gone; the town retains light industry and is part of commuterland for Sheffield.
The TIC is 1 Rotherham Visitor Centre. It's within Makers Emporium Gift Shop at 26 High Street and is open M-F 09:30-17:00, Sa 09:30-16:00.
Get in
Rotherham lies north of M1 and west of M18, with several access junctions. See South Yorkshire#Get_in for flight options.
Trains from London run every 30 min from St Pancras to Sheffield, and from Kings Cross to Doncaster (heading for Leeds); then change for local transport with a total journey time of about 2 hr 30 min.
Trains from Sheffield to Leeds or Doncaster run via Rotherham Central every 30 min or better.
Trams run from central Sheffield via Meadowhall retail mall to Rotherham Central (25 min) and continue to Parkgate shopping centre.
1 Rotherham Central is small but within a short walk of all central amenities.
By bus: National Express NX560 runs twice a day from London Victoria to Rotherham (5 hours) and Barnsley. For most other destinations change in Sheffield or Leeds. Megabus doesn't serve Rotherham.
First Bus X1 Steel Link runs every 10 min from Sheffield Eyre St via Meadowhall to Rotherham (35 min) and Maltby.
Bus X78 runs every 15 min between Doncaster, Rotherham (one hour), Meadowhall and Sheffield.
Bus 22x runs hourly from Barnsley, taking an hour to Rotherham.
The hourly bus X6 between Sheffield and Doncaster-Sheffield Airport stops at Wickersley at the south edge of town, it doesn't come into the bus station.
2 Rotherham Interchange is just the bus station, it's not an interchange with other transport modes though there's a large multi-storey car park.
Get around
Most sights can be reached on foot. For Magna Centre take any bus towards Sheffield.
For Roche Abbey take the X1 to Maltby then walk south for a mile on A634. This is a busy road but there's a sidewalk.
Taxis wait at the railway and bus stations.
See
- 1 Rotherham Minster (All Saints Church), Church Street S60 1PD, ☏ +44 1709 364737. Daily. Anglican church in Perpendicular style, the chancel dates from 14th century and the tower from the 15th. The rest is later and it was made over by George Gilbert Scott in the 19th century.
- 2 Chapel of Our Lady of Rotherham Bridge, Bridge St. This was built upon the bridge over the River Don in 1483. Chapels on bridges were often used as chantries, where a priest chanted prayers for the souls of passers-by and of local worthies. After the Reformation it became an almshouse, gaol and shop but was restored as a chapel in 1927.
- 3 [dead link] Clifton Park Museum, Clifton Lane S65 2AA, ☏ +44 1709 336633. M-Sa 10:00-17:00. Museum in an ironmaster's house built in 1783, and passing to the council in 1891, at which time the park was laid out. It includes local social and industrial history, archaeology, natural sciences, coins and medals and fine and decorative arts. There's a large collection of Rockingham Pottery, a gaudy rococo style originally made nearby in Swinton, including one of only two specimens of "Rhinoceros Vase" created to showcase the pottery's technical skill. The museum also includes the York and Lancaster Regimental Museum in the building opposite. Free.
- 4 Boston Castle, Boston Castle Grove. Apr-Sep: Tu-Su 11:00-15:00. A square two-storey building built in 1775 as a shooting lodge by the Earl of Effingham and prettified with mock castellations. He named it in sympathy with the Boston "tea-party" colonists and resigned his commission rather than fight them; and no tea was ever to be drunk in his castle! There's a small museum inside; the surrounding Boston Park was opened on 4 July 1876, the centennial of US independence. Free.
- 5 Centenary Riverside Park is a wetland and water penning area created after the disastrous floods of 2007 - which could have been much worse, as Ulley Reservoir threatened to burst its banks. Having matured for some years, the park has become a pleasant wildlife area, graced by "Steel Henge" an iron replica of Stonehenge.
- 6 Magna Science Adventure Centre, Sheffield Road, Templeborough S60 1DX (M1 jcn 34 onto A6178), ☏ +44 1709 720002. Daily 10:00-17:00. A hands-on science museum situated in an old steelworks. It's cold inside, and in early 2020 the lifts are out of order and some exhibit areas closed. Adult £12, child £10.
- 7 Roche Abbey, Maltby S66 8NW, ☏ +44 1709 812739. W-Su 10:00-17:00. Built for the Cistercians in 1147 and frantically wrecked in 1538 during the Dissolution, the abbey is now a peaceful Gothic ruin in a landscape fashioned by Capability Brown. Adults £5.50, child £3.30, conc £5.
- East just across the boundary into Doncaster is 8 Conisbrough Castle.
Do
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They didn't want to know
Rotherham has become infamous for an extensive and racially-charged child sex-abuse scandal. The victims were young white girls, groomed, abused and traded around a network of men predominantly of Pakistani background. The local council and police found this too hot to handle, resolutely looking the other way, and trying to silence those raising concern until national media and government took matters out of their hands. It’s estimated that from 1997 to 2013 some 1400 girls, some as young as ten, were systematically abused, with at least one murder. 46 men have since been jailed, with the latest convictions in Aug 2019, and an independent police investigation continues. |
- Watch football at 1 Rotherham United, AESSEAL New York Stadium, New York Way, S60 1FJ (half a mile south of Rotherham Central railway station). "The Millers" were promoted in 2020 and now play in the Championship, the second tier of English soccer. They play at the New York Stadium, capacity 12,000.
- Walk, bike or boat along the River Don, which is canalised and navigable. The canal network connects all the way to Sheffield, to the sea at Goole, and to the Aire-Calder system across the Pennines.
- Sing mass in ancient Egyptian: the Coptic Orthodox Church of St Anthony is on St Leonard's Rd, just south of the junction of A630 and A633. Morning mass is W F Su, with vespers Sa. Liturgy is little changed in thousands of years and long pre-dates Arabic, though it's transcribed into Greek script. The pharaohs probably hummed the same tunes.
Buy
- High Street was given a makeover in the 2010s and is an attractive pedestrianised area of small independent retailers.
- 1 Parkgate Shopping is a a retail park a mile north of town centre at the terminus of the tram line. It has the usual "high street" shops and a large Morrison's supermarket.
- 2 Meadowhall is the colossal mall at the northeast edge of Sheffield, at junction 34 of M1. People from miles around drive there for their weekly shop, taking the trade away from their own towns. There's a large food court, Oasis. Shops stay open till 20:00, later near Christmas when the place degenerates into "Meadowhell". Reach it from Rotherham by buses X1, X10 and X78 or by tram or train.
Eat
- The main eating strip is along Westgate. Neelagiree, serving South Indian cuisine, is open Tu-Sa 17:00-23:00 and Su 17:00-21:30; it gets good reviews except for some nights when it definitely doesn't.
- Fitzwilliam & Hughes on High St is a café serving fresh coffee and leaf teas as well as light lunches and homemade cakes.
- Miele Delicatessen at 22 High Street (☏ +44 1709 828300) is an Italian deli selling sandwiches and cheese/meat platters made to order, and real Italian coffee. The shop stocks ingredients and accessories for Med cooking.
Drink
- The Cutler's Arms. 29 Westgate, Rotherham. A brewery-run pub owned by Rotherham brewers Chantry. Hand-pulled ales, European beers and spirits. Eclectic jukebox and regular live music. Refurbished in the style of a Victorian pub.
- The New York Tavern. 84 Westgate, Rotherham. Sister pub to the Cutler's Arms, also owned by Chantry. Hand-pulled British ales and an even wider range of bottled craft beers. Quieter atmosphere than the Cutler's Arms, with regular acoustic music and live poetry.
- The Bluecoat is a JD Wetherspoon in an old schoolhouse next to town hall.
Sleep
- 1 Carlton Park Hotel, 102 Moorgate Road S60 2BG (a mile south of centre near hospital), ☏ +44 1709 849955. Friendly quirky place, great service. B&B double £55.
- 2 Hellaby Hall Hotel, Old Hellaby Lane, Hellaby S66 8EX, ☏ +44 1709 702701, reservations@hellabyhallhotel.co.uk. Mid-range spa hotel, now part of Best Western. B&B double £65.
- 3 Premier Inn is a reliable budget chain, on A631 two miles southeast of town centre.
- Welcome Inn is a mile west of town on A629.
- Holiday Inn is on A631 two miles south of the centre.
- Ibis is at M18 jcn 1, with Travellers Inn 200 yards west on A631.
Go next
- Leeds is a lively city, only an hour away by train or car; cosmopolitan Manchester is not much further.
- Hull has many free museums in the cobbled old town, and a walk-through aquarium "The Deep".
- Sheffield is 30 min from Rotherham, with many visitor attractions and a buzzing student atmosphere.
- Attractive countryside lies just south of Sheffield in the Peak District.
| Routes through Rotherham |
| Leeds ← Barnsley ← | N  S |
→ Chesterfield → Nottingham |
| Kingston-upon-Hull ← Doncaster ← | NE  SW |
→ merges with  |