Masbrough is a
suburb of
Rotherham
Rotherham () is a large minster and market 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. It is the main settlement of ...
,
South Yorkshire
South Yorkshire is a ceremonial county, ceremonial and metropolitan county, metropolitan county in the Yorkshire and Humber Region of England. The county has four council areas which are the cities of City of Doncaster, Doncaster and City of Sh ...
,
England
England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Wales to its west and Scotland to its north. The Irish Sea lies northwest and the Celtic Sea to the southwest. It is separated from continental Europe b ...
. It was named as the west of Rotherham by the middle of the
Industrial Revolution
The Industrial Revolution was the transition to new manufacturing processes in Great Britain, continental Europe, and the United States, that occurred during the period from around 1760 to about 1820–1840. This transition included going f ...
, namely that part on the left bank of
Don
Don, don or DON and variants may refer to:
Places
*County Donegal, Ireland, Chapman code DON
*Don (river), a river in European Russia
*Don River (disambiguation), several other rivers with the name
*Don, Benin, a town in Benin
*Don, Dang, a vill ...
.
Historically
History (derived ) is the systematic study and the documentation of the human activity. The time period of event before the invention of writing systems is considered prehistory. "History" is an umbrella term comprising past events as well ...
part of the
West Riding of Yorkshire
The West Riding of Yorkshire is one of three historic subdivisions of Yorkshire, England. From 1889 to 1974 the administrative county County of York, West Riding (the area under the control of West Riding County Council), abbreviated County ...
, it is in the
Metropolitan Borough of Rotherham
The Metropolitan Borough of Rotherham is a metropolitan borough of South Yorkshire, England. It is named after its largest town, Rotherham, but also spans the outlying towns of Maltby, South Yorkshire, Maltby, Swinton, South Yorkshire, Swinton, ...
, centred 0.5 miles (0.8 km) west of Rotherham town centre. Much of the suburb falls within the Rotherham West ward of Rotherham MBC.
History and landmarks
![Industrial revolution grandeur (geograph 2252776)](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/d/d5/Industrial_revolution_grandeur_%28geograph_2252776%29.jpg)
Part of its land in the north lay within the
manor of
Kimberworth, the other contiguous western suburb of Rotherham today – Masbrough did not feature in the
Domesday Book
Domesday Book () – the Middle English spelling of "Doomsday Book" – is a manuscript record of the "Great Survey" of much of England and parts of Wales completed in 1086 by order of King William I, known as William the Conqueror. The manus ...
survey of 1086.
A commemorative memorial to 50 victims of a boat disaster at Masbrough in 1841 by Edwin Smith of Sheffield is in
All Saints Church, Rotherham
The Minster Church of All Saints or Rotherham Minster is the Anglican minster church of Rotherham, South Yorkshire, England. The Minster is a prominent example of Perpendicular Gothic architecture and various architectural historians have rat ...
.
Legacies
A large memorial to a celebrated iron magnate,
Samuel Walker, stands behind the site once occupied by the 1760
Independent chapel
In Welsh and English church history, Independents advocated local congregational control of religious and church matters, without any wider geographical hierarchy, either ecclesiastical or political. They were particularly prominent during the W ...
(with a date stone of ''1777''), the
Walker Mausoleum
The Walker Mausoleum is located at on College Road, Rotherham, South Yorkshire, England. The sandstone mausoleum was built in the 1760s as the burial site for the families of Samuel and Aaron Walker and is now a Grade II listed building.
The mau ...
. After being closed as a place of worship, the chapel became a carpet showroom ''Allens of Rotherham'', but was destroyed by fire in 2012. It is connected by a short foot subway and Chapel Walk to all the historic buildings in central Rotherham. There were further memorials and statues within the chapel building. The chapel's statue to Jonathan Walker (died 1807), who was at the heart of the iron industry that led to the local area's development, depicts the man leaning on a truncated column "with head in hand".
In 1862, the Midland Iron Company was the scene of an industrial disaster, when one of the boilers exploded, killing nine people. No trace of this company exists as it became the site of a new bus depot in 1982.
Schools
The Masbrough community is served by Thornhill and Ferham primary schools. Secondary schooling is provided by
Winterhill School in nearby
Kimberworth.
Places of worship
Masbrough has six places of worship:
St Bede's Roman Catholic Church, St Paul's
Church of England
The Church of England (C of E) is the established Christian church in England and the mother church of the international Anglican Communion. It traces its history to the Christian church recorded as existing in the Roman province of Britai ...
Church, and Rotherham
Assemblies of God, now known as Liberty Church, Rotherham, and the Jamia
Mosque
A mosque (; from ar, مَسْجِد, masjid, ; literally "place of ritual prostration"), also called masjid, is a place of prayer for Muslims. Mosques are usually covered buildings, but can be any place where prayers ( sujud) are performed, ...
in College Road and two other mosques for
Sunni Muslims.
Demography
![Avondale Street - geograph](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/4/4d/Avondale_Street_-_geograph.org.uk_-_1570521.jpg)
The electoral ward largely co-extensive with Masbrough has lately been named Rotherham West. Respondents in this ward to the 2011 Census mainly identified themselves ethnically as White British, White European or
British Pakistani
British Pakistanis ( ur, (Bratānia men maqīm pākstānī); also known as Pakistani British people or Pakistani Britons) are British people, citizens or residents of the United Kingdom whose ancestral roots lie in Pakistan. This includes ...
.
People in this ward born in non-UK EU countries numbered approximately 5 per cent of the population: 572 (of which Ireland 35). Residents born in South Asia numbered 591, the Middle East 77, Zimbabwe 69, and Central and Western Africa 60. The dense minorities communities in the ward are due to the affordability of local housing.
Sport
Masbrough is the home of
Millmoor
The Millmoor Ground, commonly known as Millmoor, is a football stadium in Rotherham, South Yorkshire, England. It was the home ground of Rotherham County F.C. between 1907 and 1925 and then its successor Rotherham United F.C. until 2008. Th ...
, the former
stadium of
Second Division
In sport, the Second Division, also called Division 2 or Division II is usually the second highest division of a league, and will often have promotion and relegation with divisions above and below. Following the rise of Premier League style compet ...
football club,
Rotherham United
Rotherham United Football Club, nicknamed The Millers, is a professional football club based in Rotherham, South Yorkshire, England, which compete in the . The club's colours were initially yellow and black, but changed to red and white around 1 ...
and less than west from its replacement across the riverside nature reserve.
Transport
Rotherham Masborough railway station
Rotherham Masborough railway station was the main railway station for Rotherham, South Yorkshire, England from the 1840s until 1987, when most trains were rerouted via Rotherham Central. It had four platforms, with a large sandstone stati ...
closed, having been opened in 1840 by the
North Midland Railway
The North Midland Railway was a British railway company, which opened its line from Derby to Rotherham (Masbrough) and Leeds in 1840.
At Derby, it connected with the Birmingham and Derby Junction Railway and the Midland Counties Railway at wha ...
as an interchange with the
Sheffield and Rotherham Railway
The Sheffield and Rotherham Railway was a railway line in England, between the named places. The North Midland Railway was being promoted but its route was planned to go through Rotherham and by-pass Sheffield, so the S&RR was built as a connecti ...
. Its services were diverted in 1987 to a new
Rotherham Central railway station
Rotherham Central railway station is in Rotherham, South Yorkshire, England. The station was originally named "Rotherham", becoming "Rotherham and Masborough" in January 1889 and finally "Rotherham Central" on 25 September 1950.
The station ...
on a parallel line 600 m to the east.
The
M1 motorway
The M1 motorway connects London to Leeds, where it joins the A1(M) near Aberford, to connect to Newcastle. It was the first inter-urban motorway to be completed in the UK; the first motorway in the country was the Preston By-pass, which ...
passes, at junction 34, Meadowhall, the far western neighbourhood of Masbrough, which is associated with Kimberworth.
Notable people
*
Josiah Beckwith (1734 – before May 1800),
antiquary, settled in Masbrough.
*
Ebenezer Elliott
Ebenezer Elliott (17 March 1781 – 1 December 1849) was an English poet, known as the '' Corn Law rhymer'' for his leading the fight to repeal the Corn Laws, which were causing hardship and starvation among the poor. Though a factory owner hims ...
(1781–1849), the "
Corn Law
The Corn Laws were tariffs and other trade restrictions on imported food and corn enforced in the United Kingdom between 1815 and 1846. The word ''corn'' in British English denotes all cereal grains, including wheat, oats and barley. They wer ...
Rhymer", was born in Masbrough. Though a mill owner, he agitated against the Corn Laws for the hardship they caused the poor.
*
Sandy Powell (1900–1982), radio comedian ("Can you hear me, Mother?"), attended White's School in Masbrough.
*
Ryan Sampson (born 1985), television actor (''
Plebs,
After You've Gone''), was born in Masbrough.
*
Samuel Walker (1779–1851), ironmaster, lived at Masbrough Hall and owned an ironworks that flourished until the end of the
Napoleonic Wars
The Napoleonic Wars (1803–1815) were a series of major global conflicts pitting the French Empire and its allies, led by Napoleon I, against a fluctuating array of European states formed into various coalitions. It produced a period of Fren ...
. He was MP for
Aldeburgh
Aldeburgh ( ) is a coastal town in the county of Suffolk, England. Located to the north of the River Alde. Its estimated population was 2,276 in 2019. It was home to the composer Benjamin Britten and remains the centre of the international Alde ...
from 1818 to 1820.
*
Edward Williams (1750–1813), a Welsh-born co-founder of the
London Missionary Society
The London Missionary Society was an interdenominational evangelical missionary society formed in England in 1795 at the instigation of Welsh Congregationalist minister Edward Williams. It was largely Reformed in outlook, with Congregational m ...
, became the pastor of
Masbrough Independent Chapel
The Masbrough Independent Chapel (also known as Masbro Independent Chapel, Masbrough Chapel and Masbro Chapel) was an Independent or Congregationalist chapel in the Masbrough district of Rotherham, from the 18th century until the 1970s, at whic ...
in 1794.
[J. E. Lloyd, "Williams, Edward (1750–1813)", rev. S. J. Skedd, ''Oxford Dictionary of National Biography'' (Oxford, UK: OUP, 2004]
Retrieved 1 December 2015. Pay-walled.
/ref>
References
{{Reflist, 30em
Geography of Rotherham