Chartered Surveyors Rotherham South Yorkshire

Approximate Population: 117,262

The region around Rotherham, South Yorkshire, had been exploited for iron since Roman times, but it was coal that first brought the industrial revolution to Rotherham. The seams were the driving force behind the improvements to navigation along the Don, the various cuttings eventually forming the Sheffield and South Yorkshire Navigation. Rotherham iron was very highly regarded for its strength.

Iron, and later steel, became the principal industry in Rotherham, surviving well into the 20th century. The Walker family built up something of an iron and steel empire in Rotherham. Throughout the 18th century, the Walker foundries produced high quality cannon including some manufactured for H.M.S. Victory, in addition to several early cast iron bridges, one of which was commissioned by Thomas Paine.

The 1800s saw a massive expansion of Rotherham’s cast iron industry, starting with the opening of the Effingham Ironworks in 1820, later becoming Yates Haywood & Co. Other major ironfounders included William Corbitt and Co.; George Wright and Co. of Burton Weir; Owen and Co., of Wheathill Foundry; Morgan Macauley and Waide, of the Baths Foundry; the Masbro’ Stove Grate Co., belonging to Messrs. Perrot; W. H. Micklethwait, and John and Richard Corker, of the Ferham Works.

The Parkgate Ironworks was first established in 1823 by Sanderson and Watson, and changed ownership several times. In 1854 Samuel Beal & Co produced the wrought iron plates for Isambard Kingdom Brunel’s famous steamship the SS Great Eastern. In 1864 the ironworks was taken over by the Parkgate Iron Co. Ltd, becoming the Park Gate Iron and Steel Company in 1888. The company was purchased by Tube Investments Ltd in 1956 and finally closed in 1974. Steel, Peech and Tozer’s massive Templeborough steelworks (now the Magna Science Adventure Centre) was, at its peak, over a mile long, employing 10,000 workers, and housing six electric arc furnaces producing 1.8 million tonnes of steel a year. The operation finally closed down in 1993.