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 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)

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.

Legacies

A large memorial to a celebrated iron magnate, Samuel Walker, stands behind the site once occupied by the 1760 Independent chapel (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

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