How Manvers went from well-groomed community to riot-zone in the space of hours
Manvers thugs were overshadowed by the reaction from surrounding communities, reflects reporter Paul Whitehouse
What a difference a day makes…..as the old song lyrics go.
And rarely has a difference of 24 hours - or less - been so stark as it was between August 4 and August 5 in Manvers, back in 2024.
By that point, Manvers had already undergone enormous change - from a hotbed of mining-related industry to a well-groomed and thoroughly modern community, with new housing, 21st Century employers at its own leisure lake.
But all that was changed in the space of a few hours, when tensions over the use of a hotel - built on the assumption that the new Manvers would be getting visitors - for asylum seekers, boiled over.
The events which followed will remain fresh in the minds of those who live in that community, or have an interest in Rotherham’s welfare, for many years to come.
When I approached Manvers on the morning of August 5 I was met with streets strewn with broken glass, grass verges burned black and net curtains at the Holiday Inn Express flapping gently in the breeze - through windows open to the elements because the panes of glass had been smashed.
It wasn’t the first British community to suffer badly from a riot, but what set Manvers apart from the likes of Toxteth and Bradford for me was that it wasn’t a deprived suburb - it was modern and thriving, with families establishing a new community.
And it was precisely that community spirit which created the strongest memories.
I had not been present to see the violence of the previous day, but the underlying spirit of the community - the true spirit of Rotherham, I would suggest - was already re-emerging as the dominant force in the area - however much the previous day’s thugs might have wanted to dictate the agenda.
There was, naturally, a heavy police presence and senior politicians were on the scene quickly.
Yet there was another movement - residents themselves, mobilising quietly and efficiently to help with the clean-up operation, to help get their streets back to normal as quickly as possible.
Doing so with good humour, too.
The instinct to help wasn’t restricted to those who could see the damage from their homes, some had travelled in from surrounding communties, like Brampton Bierlow, to lend their fellow Rotherham neighbours a hand.
Those instinctive actions were a far cry from the acts carried out by offenders the previous afternoon - many of whom would go on to say they were swept along by events, when they appeared in court.
I have more than four decades’ experience in reporting on South Yorkshire’s communities, including the miners’ strike, but have never witnessed quite the same community reaction as that provoked by the attack on Manvers.
For all the work - which has rightly been done - to bring communities together since then, those acts of self-help, and helping neighbours, were the best indication of the underlying spirit of Rotherham - and its ability to survive those who would wish to break it.