CHAPTER IV 
ROTHERHAM AND LINCOLNSHIRE STEEL 
RoruerHAM historians date the connection of Rother- 
ham with the manufacture of iron as contemporary with the 
beginning of the iron trade of Sheffield. Indeed, the first 
recorded instance of iron-making in Rotherham is similar 
to the case of Sheffield, viz., the permission given by Lord 
de Busili as Lord of the Manor of Kimberworth to the 
Monks of Kirkstead in Lincolnshire in 1161 to erect four 
forges at Kimberworth. Kimberworth lies between 
Sheffield and Rotherham. Evidences exist of the continuous 
working of ironstone in the parish of Kimberworth from 
the earliest times. No doubt this ore found its way to 
Sheffield for smelting. This inference is supported by the 
entry in the Sheffield Register under date 1650, referred to 
in a previous chapter, that in this century steel was made at 
Rotherham and brought to Sheffield. This steel was that 
made prior to the advent of the Huntsman process. 
The great event, however, in the iron industry of 
Rotherham was the appearance on the scene of the Walker 
family. About 1748 Samuel Walker, the village school- 
master at Grenoside, near Sheffield, erected a small foundry 
attached to the farm in which he lived, which turned out 
annually about § tons of castings. Two years later he set 
up furnaces at the Holmes, with a larger output. Ulti- 
mately the firm developed its plant to such an extent that 
it was employed by the Government to make guns. About 
the year 1813 it turned out annually some 3,000 tons weight 
of these. The activities of the Walker family encouraged 
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