THE new ‘home’ for the prestigious Rotherham Charity Cup will be a mere 100 yards from where it originated in the town 137 years ago.

Back in 1889, the cup was purchased – through public subscription – from Mason’s Jewellers at the top of High Street. Now, it is to be housed a football pitch length away just up the road at the Town Hall.

The official handover was made last Thursday when the Mayor, Cllr Haroon Rashid and Council Leader Chris Read, received the cup on behalf of Rotherham Council from a Charity Cup delegation.

Charity Cup officials were tasked with finding a new home for the magnificent silver trophy when it was no longer able to be kept in the museum archives where it had been stored for many years.

New home: The Rotherham Charity Cup has a new home at Rotherham Town Hall. At the official handover of the trophy are, from left to right: Charity Cup chairman Les Payne, president Chris Eyre, the Mayor of Rotherham Cllr Haroon Rashid, leader of the council Chris Read and Charity Cup secretary Julie Carroll.

placeholder image — New home: The Rotherham Charity Cup has a new home at Rotherham Town Hall. At the official handover of the trophy are, from left to right: Charity Cup chairman Les Payne, president Chris Eyre, the Mayor of Rotherham Cllr Haroon Rashid, leader of the council Chris Read and Charity Cup secretary Julie Carroll.

“Because money to buy it was originally raised through the general public subscribing to a fund in 1889, the cup actually belongs to the townsfolk of Rotherham and we therefore hoped to find a place in a prominent public building in the town,” said Les Payne, chairman of the Charity Cup.

“We got a ‘thumbs up’ to the idea when we approached Cllr Read. He was in favour of housing it in the Town Hall which we thought was a great outcome and delighted it will have pride of place in the display cabinet in the corridor leading to the Mayor’s Parlour.

“A bonus is they have agreed to also take in the Charity Shield, which is from 1890 and goes to the competition runners-up, and to place it alongside the Cup.

The Mayor, himself a former footballer and noting that Rotherham’s Mayor of the time topped the public subscription list back in 1889, said he was delighted to receive the Charity Cup and considered it would be in its rightful place in view of its background and history.

The Charity Cup initially raised funds for the town’s Hospital. In the past 20 years or so, it has concentrated on small, locally-based charities and organisations and expects that this season’s competition will raise more than the £7,000 it donated amongst nine organisations last year.