Place:Rossington, West Riding of Yorkshire, England

source: Family History Library Catalog

the text in this section is copied from an article in Wikipedia Rossington is a civil parish and former mining village in the Metropolitan Borough of Doncaster in South Yorkshire, England and is surrounded by countryside and the market towns of Bawtry and Tickhill. Historically, Rossington was an ancient parish in the Soke of Doncaster rather than in the local wapentake. A "soke", like a "liberty", was a subordinate unit to a mother parish and was dependant on a secular or ecclesiastical governor. (Source: A Vision of Britain through Time) From 1894 until 1974, Rossington was located in Doncaster Rural District.

further data from Wikipedia

Rossington had a population of 13,255 in the UK census of 2001. To the northwest, the village borders Loversall, with the boundary following the River Torne, passing directly next to the western edge of the former Rossington Main Colliery.

History

the text in this section is a condensation of an article in Wikipedia

There are remains of both a Roman fort and Roman pottery kilns in the area. The name Rossington translates from the old Anglo-Saxon name of 'Farm on the Moor'. In later times, Rossington housed a small village and both Rossington Hall and Shooters Hill Hall.

Rossington villages

The area known as "Rossington" is made up of a number of villages and hamlets, namely Hesley, Littleworth, Old Rossington, New Rossington, Rossington Bridge and Shooters Hill. Littleworth was enlarged to a great degree in the 1970s, when Littleworth Park Estate was built. The New Village began to be built around the time of the sinking of the Colliery. Rossington Bridge, although now only consisting of a few buildings is the oldest of the four settlements; situated on the crossing of the Roman road from Lincoln (Lindvm) to York (Ebvrscvm) via Doncaster (Danvm), it was once the site of a major Roman fort (the largest between Lincoln and York). Rossington Bridge was also an important staging post on the Great North Road.

In more recent years, Old Rossington has seen the building of large levels of new, private housing raising the village's affluence.

Colliery

It was, however in the mid-twentieth century that saw the largest expansion of the area. The need for workers in and around the Rossington Main Colliery led to the building of large numbers of housing near to the pit in what was called New Rossington. After the end of British Coal in the early 1990s, the mine was able to keep operating and became one of the last in the area to keep producing coal albeit at a greatly reduced scale. However, with the decline of the mine, the village suffered high levels of unemployment and poverty throughout the 1990s and early 2000s. The Colliery finally closed in 2007.

Research Tips

• GENUKI on Rossington. The GENUKI page gives numerous references to local bodies providing genealogical assistance.
• The FamilySearch wiki on the ecclesiastical parish of Rossington provides a list of useful resources for the local area.
• A Vision of Britain through Time on Rossington.
• A Vision of Britain through Time also provides links to three maps for what is now South Yorkshire, produced by the United Kingdom Ordnance Survey, illustrating the boundaries between the civil parishes and the rural districts at various dates. These maps all blow up to a scale that will illustrate small villages and large farms or estates.

• Ordnance Survey West Riding 1888. The "Sanitary Districts (which preceded the rural districts) for the whole of the West Riding.
• Ordnance Survey West Riding South 1900. The rural and urban districts, not long after their introduction. (the southern part of Bradford, the southern part of Leeds, the southern part of Tadcaster Rural District, the southern part of Selby, Goole Rural District, and all the divisions of Halifax, Huddersfield, Wakefield, Doncaster, Barnsley, Rotherham and Sheffield)
• Ordnance Survey West Riding 1944. The urban and rural districts of the whole of the West Riding after the revisions of 1935.