I've been going to Rotherham every week for the past year- for work rather than pleasure I should add. Its not really the kind of place that you take a camera even though one of the roundabouts on the ring road proclaims that Rotherham is the home of a well known peanut packager. Most of Rotherham town centre with the exception of the church, parts of the F.E college and a tiny fifteenth century chantry is modern. At the moment the church is hidden by scaffolding and the chantry is lost in a sea of concrete. In fact it took me a while to find it even though I'd walked straight by it often enough without really ever noticing it. I find myself wondering how much air raids of World War Two are to blame and how much modern town planners are responsible for Rotherham's current look. Having said that it takes on a totally different character on a sunny Tuesday in the summer when the street market fills the middle of Rotherham with yellow and green awnings and tempting smells.
Arthur Mee describing the town in 1941 said that 'it is busy with collieries, a huge electric power station, and great iron, steel and brass foundries.' Times have changed for Rotherham with many of its high street buildings closed down or occupied by charity shops - the victims of out of town shopping centres. These days Rotherham is better known for Jamie Oliver's series about teaching people to cook.
I'll miss the factory shops with their bargain prices and some of the charity shops sell wonderful books at even better prices. Its certainly a place to bag a bargain on occasion. I'll miss the people that I worked with for so long too but I won't miss the journey, the town centre or the cost of parking.
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