Wath upon Dearne

Wath-upon-Dearne is a small town on the south side of the Dearne Valley in the historic county of the West Riding of Yorkshire and the Metropolitan Borough of Rotherham, South Yorkshire, England, lying 5 miles north of Rotherham, almost midway between Barnsley and Doncaster. It has a population of 16,787. It is twinned with Saint-Jean-de-Bournay, in France.HistoryWath can trace its existence back to Norman times, having an entry in the Domesday Book as Wad. For hundreds of years it remained a quiet rural settlement astride the junction of the old Doncaster-Barnsley and Rotherham-Pontefract roads, the latter a branch of Ryknield Street. North of the town was the ford of the River Dearne by this road that gave the town its name: the origin of its name has been linked to the Latin vadum and the Old Norse vath (ford or wading place). The town received its Royal Charter in 1312 – 13 entitling it to hold a weekly Tuesday market and an annual two-day fair, but these were soon discontinued. The market was revived in 1814.