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Rotherham Leasing

Did You Know?

Rotherham is a large market and minster town in South Yorkshire, England. The town takes its name from the River Rother which then merges with the River Don. The River Don then flows through the town centre.

Rotherham had a population of 109,691 in the 2011 census. The borough, governed from the town, had a 2020 population of 265,411, the 60th most populous district in England.

Iron Age and Roman settlements dot the area covered by the district, including a small Roman fort to the south-west in the upper flood meadow of the Don. Rotherham was founded in the very early Middle Ages. Its name is from Old English hām 'homestead, estate', meaning 'homestead on the Rother'.

In the late 18th and 19th centuries, Rotherham became known for its coal mining and, later, steel industries. The town's historic county is Yorkshire, and Rotherham once formed part of the West Riding of Yorkshire administrative county.

Rotherham was affected by flooding in the summer of 2007, which caused the closure of central roads, schools, transport services and damaged residential and commercial property, including the Parkgate Shopping complex and the Meadowhall Centre, which suffered considerable internal water damage.

Beyond the town centre and away from the Don Valley, the Rotherham district is largely rural, containing a mixture of retired people, larger properties, some farming and tourism and the landscaped Wentworth Woodhouse estate, where the last surviving kiln of the Rockingham Pottery can be seen.

The Chuckle Brothers, Barry Elliott and Paul Elliott, were born in Rotherham. The comedy duo was most well known for their BBC children’s television programme ‘Chuckle Vision’. They were made honorary presidents of Rotherham United’s football club in 2007, and in they received the British Academy Children’s Award in 2008.

The 2019 period drama ‘Downton Abbey’ follows the lives of the Crawley family and their downstairs staff, set in a Yorkshire country estate. The ballroom scenes were filmed at Wentworth Woodhouse, a stately home situated in Rotherham, which you can actually visit!

Presenter James May spent his teenage years in South Yorkshire and attended Oakwood Comprehensive School in Rotherham. He was also a choirboy at Whiston Parish Church – strange we haven’t heard his dulcet tones while on Top Gear or The Grand Tour!.

Jeremy Clarkson, co-star on Top Gear and The Grand Tour, also has links to Rotherham. He trained to become a journalist at the ‘Rotherham Advertiser’ in the early 1980s. Despite going on to become a TV presenter.