Authors to sign new book putting Rotherham in the spotlight

In and Around Rotherham Through Time has been written by Michael Bentley and Melvyn Jones, who are both from the area.

Speaking to the Advertiser, Michael, who has lived in Broom for over 40 years with wife Pauline, said: “It’s my first publication and something I’ve wanted to do for a long time.

“I’m good friends with Mel and we had this idea to write a book about something that we both find interesting.

“He’s a more experienced writer than I am but I wanted to get involved. I provided all of the pictures while he did the research and put it all into words.”

Michael, who has lived in Rotherham all of his life, runs a family-owned window-cleaning business in the town that caters for commercial and industrial businesses.

After spells playing cricket for Derbyshire and then semi-professionally around the Yorkshire leagues, he wanted to try his hand at something different.

He and Pauline have amassed a large collection of old postcards of Rotherham over the years, and this provided the perfect opportunity to use and share them.  

The book cover features two prominent photgraphs of Rotherham from above, one in black and white from the 1920s, and the other from just last year.

“The photo at the top of the book was taken from the skies by an old two winged aircraft and the colour one was taken by luck really, a friend was taking photos of the New York Stadium and they also took some of the town,” said Michael.  

“I saw the photo and thought it was brilliant, I knew straight away it would be perfect for the book.”

Co-author Melvyn is from Thorpe Hesley, and is a visiting professor of Landscape History at Sheffield Hallam University. His wife Joan provided the more modern, coloured photographs that feature in the book.

More than 180 black and white and coloured photos, along with detailed captions about specific areas, feature in the book.

In and Around Rotherham Through Time will be officially launched at Hamby’s Antique Centre on Saturday.

The book is also on sale priced £14.99 via Amazon and high street bookshops.