The Rossington Main colliery was a coal mine from 1912 to 2006. The New Rossington Model Village was built to accommodate 1,700 houses and fill the gap between it and the LNER line a couple of miles away. It’s grown since and its population in 2011 (13,537) is thought to make it one of the largest villages in the country, less than five miles from Doncaster racecourse.
Rossington Main is better known now as a football club, which was started by the colliery in 1917. It has undergone various name changes before settling on its current title in 1983.
DONCASTER
Jump racing resumed on Town Moor after a 35-year hiatus with a two-day meeting in December 1946. The following season two other fixtures were added and the one in February 1948 featured not only the first Rossington Main Novices Hurdle, but also the first Great Yorkshire Chase and Mansion House (qv) Chase. Future champions have won the race – Sea Pigeon (1975) and Gaye Brief (1982).
WETHERBY
HAYDOCK
The Rossington Main moved to Wetherby in 1998, and in 2005 to Haydock, where it remains anomalously, being 89 miles from the village it’s named after. The standard dropped since those Champion Hurdlers won it, but it has improved from 2015; since then Aso, First Flow and Mister Fisher have made the grade as high class chasers.