Situated in Boston Park, overlooking Rotherham, is Boston Castle. Up here, you are treated to breath-taking views of Rotherham, with the horizon exemplifying all the walks of life Rotherham has: industry, nature, and housing.
Originally a hunting lodge, it was finished in 1775 after two years of construction. Located in Canklow Woods and atop a peak overlooking the Don and Rother valleys, it made a perfect place to observe a hunt.
It was paid for by Thomas Howard. Born in January 1746, he was created the 3rd Earl of Effingham in 1763. He inherited the title of Effingham from his fifth-great-grandfather, Lord William Howard. William became the 1st Baron of Effingham in 1554 after receiving the manor of Effingham (a town in Surrey) from his political ally, John Dudley.
Boston is a port town in Lincolnshire, that later gave its name to the city in Massachusetts, America. Founded as the Massachusetts Bay Colony in 1630, it was the third English colony created out of the 13 that were settled in America. Puritans, escaping religious persecution, fled from Boston and gave this name to the new city they settled in.
This city is famous for the ‘Boston Tea Party’. This was a protest by colonists against the Tea Act, an act of parliament that granted the East India Company the power to monopolise tea trade with the colonies. In response, on 16th December 1773, angered colonists threw 324 crates of imported tea into the harbour.
Thomas Howard was a British nobleman and was made a captain in 1765. He was also a neutralist leading up to the American Revolution, as he did not support the government’s taxes, but also did not support colonial rebellion. Nevertheless, he resigned from his military position in 1775 in response to the war. This gained him popularity with the colonies, who later named Effingham town, New Hampshire; Effingham County, Georgia; and Effingham County, Illinois after him. They also named a frigate after him, the USS Effingham, in 1777. The next year, British forces burnt it down after the Philadelphia Campaign in the American Revolutionary War.
He named his hunting lodge Boston Castle in 1775 to show his opposition to the war with the colonies, by naming it after the Boston Tea Party. The family originally lived in Holmes Hall near Rotherham, before moving to Thundercliffe Grange. On 4th July 1876, 100 years after the Americans declared independence, the surrounding Boston Park was opened and became Rotherham’s first public park. It was situated in a disused quarry that produced sandstone, the material that makes up Boston Castle. The park is made of ‘Rotherham Red’, a red sandstone formed around 290 million years ago, local only to Rotherham, and gets its red colour from water that gave it more oxygen.
In 1902, Boston Castle and Boston Park were bought by the Rotherham Corporation. Today, it is open to visitors and boasts a terrific rooftop terrace so you may view the Rotherham horizon in all its splendour.