Rotherham Road railway station, named Park Gate until 1 November 1895, was a

railway station Rail transport (also known as train transport) is a means of transport that transfers passengers and goods on wheeled vehicles running on rails, which are incorporated in tracks. In contrast to road transport, where the vehicles run on a pre ...

situated in

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 and metropolitan county in the Yorkshire and Humber Region of England. The county has four council areas which are the cities of Doncaster and Sheffield as well as the boroughs of Barnsley and Rotherham. In N ...

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 built close to the Rotherham borough boundary with access from Rawmarsh Road, Rotherham and served two rows of stone build

terraced house In architecture and city planning, a terrace or terraced house ( UK) or townhouse ( US) is a form of medium-density housing that originated in Europe in the 16th century, whereby a row of attached dwellings share side walls. In the United State ...

s, "Parkgate Row", closest to the station and "Stone Row", actually on Rotherham Road, Parkgate. The station, opened in September 1871, was built in the

Manchester, Sheffield & Lincolnshire Railway The Manchester, Sheffield and Lincolnshire Railway (MS&LR) was formed in 1847 when the Sheffield, Ashton-under-Lyne and Manchester Railway joined with authorised but unbuilt railway companies, forming a proposed network from Manchester to Grimsby ...

's (MS&LR) "Double Pavilion" style with the main building on the

Doncaster Doncaster (, ) is a city in South Yorkshire, England. Named after the River Don, it is the administrative centre of the larger City of Doncaster. It is the second largest settlement in South Yorkshire after Sheffield. Doncaster is situated in ...

bound platform, approach being from Rotherham Road. This station was provided with a private waiting room reserved for the use of

Earl Fitzwilliam Earl Fitzwilliam (or FitzWilliam) was a title in both the Peerage of Ireland and the Peerage of Great Britain held by the head of the Fitzwilliam family (later Wentworth-Fitzwilliam). History The Fitzwilliams acquired extensive holdings in the ...

and his parties. This facility also included a toilet with the Earl's crest featured on the w.c. In particular this involved regular travel to Doncaster for the

St. Leger The St Leger Stakes is a Group 1 flat horse race in Great Britain open to three-year-old thoroughbred colts and fillies. It is run at Doncaster over a d ...

race meeting when an all first class train was run from

Sheffield Sheffield is a city status in the United Kingdom, city in South Yorkshire, England, whose name derives from the River Sheaf which runs through it. The city serves as the administrative centre of the City of Sheffield. It is Historic counties o ...

to Doncaster calling only at Rotherham Road. The station was closed on 5 January 1953. The

stationmaster The station master (or stationmaster) is the person in charge of a railway station, particularly in the United Kingdom and many other countries outside North America. In the United Kingdom, where the term originated, it is now largely historical ...

had, under his control, the small yard and interchange sidings on the Rotherham side of the station. This handled some of the traffic to and from South Yorkshire Coke and Chemicals works and, from 1873 via

Earl Fitzwilliam's private railway Earl Fitzwilliam's private railway near Rotherham, South Yorkshire, was constructed in order to link the Earl's coal interests to the southeast of his Wentworth estate with the Greasbrough Canal, also owned by his estate, which gave an outlet to t ...

, his colliery interests. At the

buffer stops A buffer stop, bumper, bumping post, bumper block or stopblock (US), is a device to prevent railway vehicles from going past the end of a physical section of track. The design of the buffer stop is dependent, in part, on the kind of couplings ...

end of the yard there was a

wagon A wagon or waggon is a heavy four-wheeled vehicle pulled by draught animals or on occasion by humans, used for transporting goods, commodities, agricultural materials, supplies and sometimes people. Wagons are immediately distinguished from ...

repair facility which closed many years ago. The access to the yard was controlled by Rotherham Road

signal box In signal processing, a signal is a function that conveys information about a phenomenon. Any quantity that can vary over space or time can be used as a signal to share messages between observers. The ''IEEE Transactions on Signal Processing'' ...

until 10 May 1987 when Sheffield

power box A power box (USA) or feeder pillar (UK) is a cabinet for electrical equipment, mounted in the street and controlling the electrical supply to a number of houses in a neighborhood. A power box is simply a layman's term for a transformer, cutout ...

took over control of the line between Holmes Junction and Aldwarke Junction. The box was demolished over the weekend of 30–31 January 1988. Immediately on the Parkgate side of the station was a small

swing bridge A swing bridge (or swing span bridge) is a movable bridge that has as its primary structural support a vertical locating pin and support ring, usually at or near to its center of gravity, about which the swing span (turning span) can then pi ...

carrying the line over the

Greasbrough Canal The Greasbrough Canal was a private canal built by the Marquess of Rockingham to serve his coal mining interests in and around the village of Greasbrough, near Rotherham, South Yorkshire, England. It opened in 1780, and the Newbiggin branch was ...

which necessitated a speed limit, which has been raised since the span was fixed. This was controlled by an early MS&LR

hipped roof A hip roof, hip-roof or hipped roof, is a type of roof where all sides slope downwards to the walls, usually with a fairly gentle slope (although a tented roof by definition is a hipped roof with steeply pitched slopes rising to a peak). Thus, ...

signal box named "Parkgate" built on the Parkgate side of the canal by the line. This early signal box was removed in the early years of the 20th century, a few years after the opening of Rotherham Road signal box. At the nationalisation of the canals, this canal was not included and it belongs to Earl Fitzwilliam's Estates.

References

*'The South Yorkshire Railway', D.L.Franks. Turntable Enterprises *Various articles by D.L.Franks which have appeared in "Forward", the journal of the Great Central Railway Society. *'Great Central', Vol 2. George Dow, Loco Publishing Co. {{S-end Disused railway stations in Rotherham Former Great Central Railway stations Railway stations in Great Britain opened in 1871 Railway stations in Great Britain closed in 1953