Rotherham

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Rotherham
Rotherham Town Hall
Rotherham Town Hall
Coordinates 53 ° 26 ′  N , 1 ° 21 ′  W Coordinates: 53 ° 26 ′  N , 1 ° 21 ′  W
Rotherham (England)
Rotherham
Rotherham
Residents 117,262 (as of 2001 Census )
administration
Post town ROTHERHAM
ZIP code section S60-S63, S65-S66
prefix 01709
Part of the country England
region Yorkshire and the Humber
Metropolitan county South Yorkshire
Metropolitan Borough Rotherham
Website: http://www.rotherham.gov.uk

Rotherham [ ˈɹɒðəɹəm ] is a town in South Yorkshire , England on the River Don , near the confluence of the Don and the Rother . It is located in the Don Valley between Sheffield and Doncaster . Rotherham is approximately 6 miles from Sheffield city center and is the administrative seat of the Metropolitan Borough of Rotherham . The city has 117,262 inhabitants (as of 2001). The Rotherham District, including the metropolitan area around Rotherham, has a population of 248,176 . The city became known worldwide through the Rotherham abuse scandal .

history

There were already settlements in the area of ​​today's Rotherham during the Iron Age and the Romans . However, the place itself was not founded until the early Middle Ages and quickly developed into an important Anglo-Saxon market town because it was on a Roman road .

In the 1480s, the Rotherham-born Archbishop of York , Thomas Rotherham , initiated the construction of a college ( The College of Jesus ) to counterbalance the colleges of Cambridge and Oxford . This college and a modern new parish church ( All Saints ) made Rotherham a bustling and modern town at the end of the 15th century. Under the reign of King Edward VI. however, the college was closed and its estates were added to the Crown. By the late sixteenth century, Rotherham had gone from a modern college town to a place of perpetual play and vice.

Iron has been mined in the area since the Romans , but it was coal that brought the industrial revolution to Rotherham and made the town an industrial center.

A little later, iron mining began, especially by the Walker family, who built up a kind of iron empire in Rotherham. During the 18th century, the Walker factories manufactured high quality cannons , but also bridge parts. In the meantime, Joseph Foljambe set up a factory to produce his Rotherham Plow , the first commercially successful iron plow .

Rotherham iron was known for its high quality. Iron and later also steel were the main branches of industry in Rotherham until the 20th century. Steel, Peech and Tozer's Templeborough mill was over a mile long at its best, employed 10,000 workers, and operated six electric arc furnaces producing 1.8 million tons of steel per year. Production stopped in 1993.

The former industrial town of Rotherham has had to cope with structural change with increased unemployment over the past few decades .

Abuse scandal since 2014

In August 2014, an investigation report exposed the Rotherham abuse scandal . Professor Alexis Jay has shown that up to 1,400 children and young people in Rotherham were victims of sexual violence between 1997 and 2013. The victims also included eleven-year-old girls who were beaten, intimidated and raped by several perpetrators, some of whom were made compliant with alcohol and drugs. Although there had been multiple reports of massive sexual violence between 2002 and 2006, the authorities did not act. “From the beginning there were indications that sexual exploitation of children in Rotherham was becoming an increasing problem. More than a third of the victims were known to the youth protection authorities. ”The report accuses the authorities of a blatant and collective failure. He documented that the city administration, police and social workers did not intervene because they feared being labeled "racist". The perpetrators were mostly men of Pakistani origin . The publication of the investigation report resulted in the resignation of Rotherham City Council Chairman Roger Stone. In early February 2015, a special government envoy, Louise Casey, confirmed the results of the investigation report and certified failure of the entire city tour. As a result, the city council resigned and management was handed over to acting representatives from London. In December 2015, the trial of the first eight charged with rape began. Back in 2010, a gang of five sex offenders of Pakistani origin had been sentenced to long prison terms. By November 2017, an additional 22 men of Pakistani origin had been sentenced to between 5 and 35 years in prison for rape and sexual abuse of children. The for the Labor Party elected MP of the constituency, Sarah Champion, pointed out that sexual exploitation continues through Pakistani clans after the court decisions.

Buildings

Despite its history, Rotherham is poor in historical buildings. The only half-timbered house from the 16th century is the Three Cranes Pub, which has been rebuilt several times. Most of the buildings in the center were demolished and rebuilt during the 20th century.

One of the only four bridge chapels in England belongs to the city center : The Chapel of Our Lady of Rotherham Bridge (or Chapel on the Bridge ) on the Chantry Bridge , built in the 15th century . The chapel was restored in 1923 after having served as a tobacco shop for a long time.

Other attractions include the 15th century parish church of All Saints and the 18th century Clifton House , which is now the Clifton Park Museum .

sons and daughters of the town

Rotherham from the musicians come Dougie Brown , Paul Shane and the Chuckle Brothers , the politician William Hague , the television presenter and Daily telegraph columnist James May and the former goalkeeper of the England team , David Seaman . It is also home to snooker player Shaun Murphy and English FIFA referee Howard Webb . Other personalities who were born here:

Sports

Rotherham is home to Rotherham United (The Millers), who play in the Football League Championship at New York Stadium , and Rotherham Titans , who play second-rate in rugby union .

Web links

Commons : Rotherham  - collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ^ GB Historical GIS / University of Portsmouth, Rotherham District through time | Population Statistics
  2. ↑ Vanessa Steinmetz: "Abuse in England: The Incredible Rotherham Scandal" , SPIEGEL Online, August 31, 2014.
  3. ↑ a b Jochen Buchsteiner: The silent ethnic dimension. Trial of Pakistani rapist ring in England . In: FAZ of December 9, 2015, p. 3.
  4. ^ English city of Rotherham: 1400 children and young people sexually abused , Der Spiegel from August 26, 2014, accessed on August 27, 2014.
  5. ↑ Jochen Buchsteiner: City of Silence . In: FAZ of February 18, 2015.
  6. ^ Rotherham Politics: The Andrew Norfolk Archive , accessed February 8, 2018; Three Masbrough men guilty of historic child sex offces , accessed February 8, 2018.
  7. ↑ Cathrin Kahlweit: History without End. Almost one and a half thousand young people were abused in Rotherham, England alone. Most of the perpetrators were Muslim Asians, which is only one reason why none of this should be an issue for many to this day . In: Süddeutsche Zeitung of October 26, 2017, p. 3.