Herringthorpe Playing Fields

Facilities

• Football pitches: junior and senior
• Rugby pitches: junior and senior
• Cricket pitches: junior and senior
• Events programme

History

Herringthorpe playing fields is Rotherham's largest recreation ground totalling almost 35 hectares.

As with many of Rotherham's green spaces, the land was originally farmland and the farmhouse, known then as Broom Farm, is now the Homestead Public House. Once farming ended the fields were used as a race course from 1889 to 1901. It is unknown why horse racing finished on the site.

The Council first purchased part of the field in 1928 with further areas of land being purchased in the early 1930s. As with many large green open spaces, the land provided an escape from the industrial town and proved an ideal area for recreation. Originally there were 18 football pitches, 17 cricket pitches and 3 hockey pitches. There was also an attractive pavilion which provided showers and a changing area for players for many years, however, this was demolished in 2007.

To provide additional sporting opportunities, the athletics stadium was developed in 1960. This is a well used facility and was modernised by upgrading the hard porous running track with a new synthetic surface in 1989. This was seen as a major improvement and an opening ceremony was held in 1990 with a night of athletics attracting athletes of international quality. Thousands of spectators flocked to the stadium to see Rotherham's own Peter Elliot, silver olympic games medal winner (1988). The stadium is now home to the Rotherham Harriers Athletic Club.

Herringthorpe leisure centre was added to the site and opened in 1974. It provided state of the art indoor sporting and leisure pool facilities and contained the first wave machine in the country. The leisure centre closed in autumn 2008, replaced by the new Rotherham Leisure Complex in the town centre.

Although the land is well developed for sport, some areas were used for horticulture and in 1980 a new central nursery was constructed near the Boswell Street entrance. At it's height, it produced over 250,000 summer bedding plants, some 135,000 spring bedding plants, and over 700 hanging baskets to parks throughout the borough. At this time Rotherham was well know nationally for its quality and variety of bedding displays, being regular winners of the regional Britain in Bloom competition. The nursery was mothballed in 2001 and removed in 2004.

Other areas of land associated to the playing fields included the former 'boss's garden' which today sits just below the Rotherham Hospice. This area was used as a paddock for the donkeys which provided daily summer rides in Clifton Park and was later developed into a horticultural training garden for the apprentice gardeners in the 1980s.

Besides providing sporting facilities, the playing fields provided an ideal area to host large scale events. From the late seventies up to the late nineties the fields were home to the Rotherham Motoring Weekend and Tattoo. There were also annual spring fairs and several pop concerts held.

Present

In 1994 the Council granted a long term lease on part of the land which was formally part of the Herringthorpe horticultural nursery. This land is now occupied by the Rotherham Hospice and provides pleasant views across the field.

One of the major changes to Herringthorpe Playing Fields is a network of pathways, lighting, seating and attractive perimeter fencing provided in 2005. This has improved access on the site and has provided boundary controls to prevent unauthorised access by vehicles. Sport is still very popular and today the site has 12 football pitches, 4 cricket pitches and 2 rugby pitches. There is regular organised sport and the site is now home to the Herringthorpe sports village project, run by the council's sports development team.

Herringthorpe playing fields is one of the 5 key sites identified in the council's playing pitch strategy. It is hoped the area will be developed as one of the major sports hubs for Rotherham providing higher quality facilities to enable sports clubs to continue to develop.

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