Doncaster is a large town in South Yorkshire, England and the principal settlement of the Metropolitan Borough of Doncaster. The town is located about 20 miles from Sheffield and is popularly referred to by some of its residents as "Donny". Doncaster has a new international airport and its centre has undergone regeneration including the development of an Education City campus, currently the largest education investment of its kind in the UK. Doncaster has also recently extended the Frenchgate Centre, a shopping centre and transport interchange.

According to the 2001 census the urban sub-area of Doncaster had a population of 67,977 - together with Bentley, Armthorpe and Kirk Sandall it forms an urban area with a population of 127,851. The wider metropolitan borough has a population of around 290,000. This makes it the largest town in the United Kingdom not to have been granted city status.

Roman heritage

Doncaster (or DANVM as called during Roman times) is located at - the site of a Roman fort which was built in the 1st century A.D. at the site of a crossing across the River Don. The Roman empirical command of Ninius called this fort "Caer Daun". Later the commands of Antoninus Pius and Notitia called this fort Danum, from which the town derives the Don part of its name; caster a Saxon word corrupted from the Latin original Castra, meaning a military camp. Doncaster was home to the Roman Crispinian horse garrison. The cavalry took its name from Crispus, son of Constantine the Great. Crispus, son of the Emperor, lived at Danum (Doncaster) whilst his father lived 40 miles further north at Eboracum (York). In truth, much of Doncaster's Roman past remains to be discovered.

The Doncaster garrison units are named in the Notitia Dignitatum or 'Register of Dignitaries', produced around the turn of the 5th century near the end of Roman rule in Britain. This important administrative document contains - among other things - the name of almost every military unit in the Roman empire, also the name of their respective garrison towns. The garrison unit was originally recruited from among the tribespeople living near the town of Crispiana in Upper Pannonia, near Zirc in the Bakony region of western Hungary. The fact that Doncaster is included, highlights the importance placed by the Romans on the Doncaster. The Doncaster entry is listed under the command of the Dux Britanniarum or the 'Duke of the Britons'. Doncaster provided an alternative direct land route between Lincoln and York. The main route between Lincoln and York was in fact Ermine Street which meant crossing the River Humber in boats. For obvious reasons this was not always practical and thus Doncaster became an important staging post on the Roman map.