The Rotherham trolleybus system once served the town of Rotherham, West Riding of Yorkshire, England. Opened on , it was the fourth trolleybus system to be established in the United Kingdom, after the systems in nearby Bradford and Leeds, which had opened simultaneously in 1911, and Dundee earlier in 1912. Between 1912 and 1949, the Rotherham system gradually replaced the Rotherham Tramway.

By the standards of the various now-defunct trolleybus systems in the United Kingdom, the Rotherham system was a medium-sized one, with a total of 10 routes, and a maximum fleet of 59 trolleybuses. It was closed on .

The first route to open ran for from the Broom Road tram terminus to Maltby. It was Britain's first rural trolleybus route, and most of it was constructed outside of the municipal boundary. It was ranked the fastest trolleybus route in the country in 1927. The next route to open was a joint working with Mexborough and Swinton and was the first joint working between a Corporation and a private company. When it closed, it was the last such joint venture in the country. Trolleybuses replaced the trams relatively slowly and, in two cases, the tramway overhead wiring was altered to allow trolleybuses to run along the same route, with the trams continuing to operate. The final trams were withdrawn, from the joint service with Sheffield, in 1949, and the trolleybuses might well have ceased soon afterwards, but twenty of the Daimler single-deck vehicles were rebuilt with double-deck bodywork, and the extra capacity made them profitable for another ten years. The final trolleybus ran on the day before the 53rd anniversary of the opening.

The Corporation ran an eclectic mix of single-deck vehicles, purchased from seven different manufacturers, and comprising two-axle and three-axle models. The workshops were able to carry out heavy maintenance, in several cases rebuilding rear or front entrance vehicles with a centre entrance, and in one case building a completely new body. Prior to the system closing, four vehicles were sold on to Darlington in 1937, and seventeen of the single-deck vehicles were sold for further use in Spain in the 1950s. Four of the former Rotherham trolleybuses are now preserved, two of the converted double-deck Daimlers at the Trolleybus Museum at Sandtoft, Lincolnshire, a single-deck Sunbeam by the Rotherham Trolleybus Group at Burton upon Trent, Staffordshire, and one of the single-deck Daimlers in northern Spain.

History Rotherham Corporation had obtained an act of Parliament in 1900 that authorised them to build electric tramways within the borough, and the first routes opened on 31 January 1903. Seven years later, they sent "a small deputation" to view trolleybus systems in Europe, and applied to Parliament for powers to run trolleybuses over a wide area, specifically mentioning six routes. When the act of Parliament was granted, two of the routes, one to Thorpe Hesley, and the other to Brinsworth, Tinsley, Catcliffe and Treeton, were authorised in full, as well as part of a third route, to Wickersley, Bramley and Maltby, but not the continuation from Maltby to Tickhill. Construction of the route to Maltby, starting from the tram terminus at Broom Road, began in 1911, and was ready for inspection by the Board of Trade on 30 September 1912. The installation work was carried out by RET Construction Company, and a formal opening ceremony was held on 3 October, led by the chairman of the Tramways Committee. He was joined by the Mayor and around 180 guests, including the chairman of Leeds Corporation Tramways, who said that the new system was "far and away better" than the one that Leeds had installed in 1911. The route ran for some , of which over were outside the Rotherham municipal boundary. They thus became the operators of the fourth trolleybus system in Britain, the first rural system, and the first to operate outside of its area.

To run the service, three single-deck vehicles with 28 seats and rear entrances were obtained from Railless in 1912, and another three in the following year. They ran well, despite the rough roads of the rural section, and could maintain speeds of even on the hills. There were difficulties maintaining the vehicles during the First World War, and times when the service had to be withdrawn, so when the Corporation obtained another act of Parliament in 1915, it included powers to convert the trolleybus route into a tramway. After hostilities ended, the Corporation decided that converting at least part of the route from Broom Road to Wickersley was a priority, but this did not take place, and instead, the trolleybus wires were extended from Broom Road to College Square in the town centre, with trolleybuses running over the route from January 1924. In December 1924, the wires at the Maltby end were altered, extending the service from Hall Estate to the Queen's Head Hotel. In order that the trolleybuses could get to the Rawmarsh Road depot from the Rotherham terminus at Herringthorpe Lane, the tramway manager invented a device that included a steering arm so that the vehicles were guided by the tram tracks. The Rotherham end of the route was unusual, in that trams continued to operate between the town centre and Broom Road for another five and a half years, until they were withdrawn on 10 June 1929.

The Railless trolleybuses had box-like bodywork with open platforms at the rear, but in the early 1920s, they were replaced by six vehicles obtained from Straker-Clough. Although they had similar bodywork, based on tram designs rather than road vehicles, they had enclosed rear platforms. Three more vehicles followed, this time with improved windows and rounded roofs. A number of vehicles had their bodywork altered at Rawmarsh Road depot, when the rear entrances were replaced by centre entrances, an arrangement that became standard for all single-deck vehicles operated by the corporation.

Extensions

The next extension to the system was influenced more by external factors than internal policies. Rotherham Corporation and Mexborough and Swinton Tramway Company had joined up their tram tracks and operated joint services from 6 February 1907. Mexborough and Swinton had grand designs in the early 1920s, hoping to convert some of their trolleybus routes to tramways, and to connect their system to the Doncaster Tramway and the newly opened Dearne District Light Railway. As the likelihood of this happening faded, they decided to convert their tramways to trolleybus routes, and as a major part of their operation was the joint route into Rotherham Town Centre, they approached the Corporation about their plans. Rotherham were initially opposed to the idea, but consensus was reached in 1926, and Rotherham agreed to replace the overhead wiring on their part of the route, and in return, would be able to operate trolleybuses to termini in Mexborough. An Act of Parliament was obtained by Mexborough to authorise the changes in 1927. Through working began on 10 March 1929, with some new three-axle trolleybuses purchased from Guy Motors operating the routes for the corporation, and Mexborough's Richard Garrett & Sons vehicles becoming a common sight in Rotherham. A formal commemoration ceremony was held on 12 March to celebrate the event. One quirk of the system was that Rotherham used numbers for their routes, while Mexborough used letters, and so vehicles running between Rotherham and Conisbrough Low were operating route "9" if they were owned by the corporation, and route "B" if they were owned by Mexborough.

The next extension to the system was triggered by proposals for major reconstruction of the roads on the route to Thrybergh. Rather than relay the tram tracks in the new road, the Corporation decided to convert the route to trolleybus operation, and to replace the trams on the Kimberworth route at the same time. The work was completed in time for an opening on 17 May 1931, with trolleybuses running through the town centre between Thrybergh in the east and Kimberworth to the west. A batch of 22 new vehicles were ordered from Ransomes, Sims & Jefferies, making this the largest single order that the corporation had ever placed. At Kimberworth, the route was extended from the original tram terminus to the Colin Campbell Inn, while at Thrybergh, the new route left the course of the tramway at Whinney Hill to continue along Old Gate Lane and Park Lane. Shortly after operation began, a new branch was added, enabling trolleybuses to serve Silverwood Colliery. This was about in length, and the idea of running a service to the colliery was not new, as there had been earlier proposals to extend the tramway to its gates. There had also been proposals in 1928 to extend the wires from Thrybergh along the Doncaster Road to Conisbrough, where they could join up with Mexborough's wiring to create a large loop. Other proposals included extending the wires from Conisbrough to join the Doncaster system, so that through services from Rotherham to Doncaster could be operated, but neither of these two proposals ever became more than plans.

Trams on the route to Canklow were withdrawn on 10 July 1934, but were replaced by motor buses, rather than trolleybuses. On the Maltby route, a branch to Worry Goose Lane was created, with a connecting link back to the Maltby route at Brecks Lane. This opened on 28 March 1935, but was not particularly successful, and Worry Goose Lane became a terminus when the route onwards to Brecks Lane was closed in 1939. A new route to Greasbrough, to the north west of the town centre, fared rather better, when it opened on 1 July 1936. It followed the planned route of a tramway extension that had been proposed some years earlier, but never built. Purchasing of new trolleybuses continued, all of them single-deck vehicles with centre entrances, but a mixture of two-axle and three-axle types. 44 three-axle trolleybuses were obtained between 1936 and 1942, from three separate manufacturers, Guy Motors, Associated Equipment Company, more commonly known as AEC, and Sunbeam Commercial Vehicles.

Since 1934, only one tram route had been operating, but this was the route to Templeborough and onwards to Sheffield, worked as a joint service by the two Corporations. Rotherham used single-ended trams for their part of the service, looking similar to double-deck trolleybuses, which they had bought in 1934–35. Although its conversion to trolleybus operation had been actively considered, Sheffield was not keen to introduce trolleybuses, and so the trams remained. Traffic levels increased considerably with the onset of the Second World War, and so the trolleybus wiring was extended along the tram route as far as the boundary at Templeborough. This enabled several cross-town routes to be introduced, with trolleybuses from Maltby, Thrybergh and Kilnhurst Road on the Mexborough system running through to Templeborough. This was particularly useful for those working in the steel industry. Subsequently, trolleybuses ran rather erratically on the route, although the through service of trams continued until 1948, after which they worked to Templeborough for another year, until they were withdrawn on 13 November 1949.

Demise