Rotherham, a market-town and municipal borough in the Rotherham parliamentary division of the West Riding of Yorkshire, England, 5 m. N.E. of Sheffield, on the Midland, North-Eastern and Great Central railways. Pop. (1891) 42,061; (1901) 54,349. It lies in the valley of the Don, where that river is joined by the Rother, and has communication by water with the Humber. The Don is crossed by a bridge on which is a small ancient building, formerly a chapel. The parish church of All Saints, occupying the site of a building dating from Anglo-Saxon times, was erected in the reign of Edward IV., and is among the best specimens of Perpendicular in the north of England. The town possesses iron, steel and brass works, railway wagon works, potteries, glass-works, breweries, saw-mills and rope-yards. At the township of Masborough, opposite Rotherham across the Don, works were established in 1746 by Samuel Walker, a successful ironmaster. The municipal borough, incorporated in 1871, is under a mayor, 6 aldermen and 18 councillors. Area, 6012 acres.
The town was of some importance in Anglo-Saxon times, and at Templeborough, on the S.E. side of Rotherham, there was a Roman fort, but its traces are effaced. In the time of Edward the Confessor, Rotherham possessed a market and a church. During the Civil War it sided with the Parliament. It was taken by the Royalists in 1643, but after the victory of Marston Moor was yielded to a detachment of the Parliamentary forces.
