Rotherham, a busy manufacturing town in the West Riding of Yorkshire, on the right bank of the Don, here joined by the Rother, 5 miles ENE. of Sheffield by a railway opened in 1838. Its chief glory is the magnificent cruciform church, Perpendicular in style, with crocketted spire and fine west front. It is probably somewhat earlier than its reputed founder, Thomas de Rotherham, Archbishop of York (1423-1500); in 1875 it was restored by Sir G. G. Scott at a cost of £9000. A handsome edifice in the Collegiate Gothic style, built for an Independent College in 1875 at a cost of £26,000, has been bought for £8000, and applied to the purpose of a grammar-school (1483), at which Bishop Sanderson was educated. There are also a mechanics' institute (1853); a free library (1881); an infirmary (1870); a covered market (1879); public baths (1887); a park (1876) of 20 acres, 300 feet above the town; and the Clifton Park of 57 acres, which, costing £25,000, contains a fine mansion-house, and was opened by the Prince of
Wales on 25th June 1891. The manufactures include stoves, grates, chemicals, pottery, glass, railway-carriages, &c. Ebenezer Elliott was a native of the suburb of Masborough, which is included within the municipal boundary, incorporated in 1871. Roche Abbey, a ruin, 8 miles ESE., was a Cistercian foundation (1147); and 8 miles NE. is Conisborough Castle, noticed at DONCASTER. Pop. (1851) 6325; (1871) 25,892; (1881) 34,782; (1891) 42,050. See John Guest's huge Historical Notices of Rotherham (1879).