Why did population in Rotherham and small towns increase in the 19th century and the industrial revolution?
before the industrial revolution England had two cities London and Bristol (which was tiny compared to London) with the coming of the industrial revolution people travelled across the country looking for suitable sites to set up these new large scale industrial premises. they had to be in a place that ticked several boxes. first and foremost for people in the new steel industry, they needed places near both iron ore and coal fields, as such the search was narrowed down to the north of England. to further narrow it down they looked for other factors as well, 1) it needed to be near to a port or failing that at least in a location were a road (or canal) could be built to get there, as Liverpool was a small port, as was, hull, middlesbough etc, places in and around the yorkshire/Lancaster border became natural choices as they sat either on or near coal and ore fields and were within a reasonable distance of ports that could be built up to handle large scale shipping to transport these new
