My World: Driven round the bend

But it does and they have singled out a Rotherham island as a possible winner for this year’s best UK roundabout award.

Of all the things Rotherham has achieved, all of the national accolades down the years, where would this rank?

Of course, any positive award is nice for a town that needs as much good news as possible as this moment in time, but I have to admit I was astounded when I heard colleagues talking about this earlier in the week.

The roundabout up for the gong, as reported in today’s Advertiser (p3), is the Rhymer’s Roundabout near Kimberworth which has a metal sculpture of corn blowing in the wind in the centre.

It is certainly a talking point, but do many people know what its significance is?

It’s in memory of the great Ebenezer Elliott, a poet and industrialist from Rotherham who campaigned against the Government back in 1831 with his Corn Law Rhymes poems.

Some of you who enjoy a drink at the weekend out there may also note that the Wetherspoons in the town centre is also named after the wordsmith.

I can’t help but think that it is perhaps the roundabout’s historical links and interesting context that has made it a contender, rather than the sculpture itself.

I drive around this roundabout to and from work five day a week and I must admit, I never fail to notice it when I am approaching, but is it really the best in Britain?

Well after scouting around the internet at last year’s entries, it does stand out as being rather ‘different’, maybe we have a real lack of interesting roundabouts in the country?

Whatever the case, I really do hope the Rhymer’s Roundabout wins the award, it would be on pub quizzes in the town for plenty of years to come.

It will be included in a calendar that is produced so all of Britain can see just what we have to offer in the roundabout stakes, maybe we’ll gain extra tourism from people coming from here and there to view it. Could even open a cafe and a gift shop on the roundabout.

I’m being a little bit silly there and like I said, I do honestly hope it wins. Then I can say I drive around an award winning roundabout twice a day...