Rotherham

My memories of Rotherham consist mostly of gazing out of the train window on the approaches to Rotherham Masborough station when travelling between Leeds and Sheffield in the 1960s.  The whole route was taken up with vistas of railway sidings and junctions, collieries, steel works, iron foundries, heavy engineering, dirty rivers and canals.

Rotherham was not a destination of choice, much better attractions were to be found in Sheffield, but in those days that was not saying much.

Rotherham FC sold Keith Kettleborough to Sheffield United in 1960 and after a rocky start he became a fixture in the Blades team. I recall vividly the game between United and Wednesday at Bramall Lane during which Kettleborough and Tony Kay had a running battle. (United won with a goal in the last minute scored by Derek 'Doc' Pace.)  I braved the journey to Rotherham a few times in the 1967-68 season when the football club brought in Tommy Docherty as manager to save the club from relegation - he failed.

Rotherham, like many towns, is not often in the news and doubtless it would have remained so had it not been for the controversies surrounding the parliamentary by-election.