[5] Named after the River Don, it is the administrative centre of the City of Doncaster metropolitan borough, and is the second largest settlement in South Yorkshire after Sheffield.

Noted for its racing and railway history, it is situated in the Don Valley on the western edge of the Humberhead Levels and east of the Pennines.

[2] Adjacent to Doncaster to its east is the Isle of Axholme in Lincolnshire, which contains the towns of Haxey, Epworth and Crowle, and directly south is Harworth Bircotes in Nottinghamshire.

Also, within the city's vicinity are Barnsley, Wakefield, Pontefract, Selby, Goole, Scunthorpe, Gainsborough, Retford, Worksop and Rotherham, to which Doncaster is linked by road and rail.

[9] A ceremony to confer city status took place at Mansion House on 9 November 2022 as part of a tour of Yorkshire by King Charles III and Queen Camilla.

[10][11] Possibly inhabited earlier, Doncaster grew up on the site of a Roman fort of the 1st century CE, at a crossing of the River Don.

The first section of road to the Doncaster fort had probably been built since the early 50s, while a route through the north Derbyshire hills was opened in the later 1st century, possibly by Governor Gn.

Several areas of intense archaeological interest have been identified in the town, although many such as St Sepulchre Gate remain hidden under buildings.

The Doncaster garrison units are named in a Register produced near the end of Roman rule in Britain: it was the home of the Crispinian Horse, presumably named after the tribes living near Crispiana in Pannonia Superior (near present-day Zirc in western Hungary), but possibly after Crispus, son of Constantine the Great, who was headquartered there while his father was based in nearby York.

[14] Doncaster is generally identified with Cair Daun[15] listed as one of 28 British cities in the 9th-century History of the Britons traditionally ascribed to Nennius.

In 1248, a charter was granted for Doncaster Market to be held in the area surrounding the Church of St Mary Magdalene, which was built in Norman times.

[21] Some 750 years on, the market continues to operate, with busy traders located under cover, at the 19th-century Doncaster Corn Exchange building (1873).

This rebellion led by the lawyer Robert Aske commanded 40,000 Yorkshire people against Henry VIII, in protest at the Dissolution of the Monasteries.

During the First English Civil War, King Charles I marched by Bridgnorth, Lichfield and Ashbourne to Doncaster, where on 18 August 1645 he was met by numbers of Yorkshire gentlemen who had rallied to his cause.

From 2023, the Don Valley constituency will be renamed Doncaster East and the Isle of Axholme, and will cover part of North Lincolnshire.

Additionally, the Metropolitan Borough of Doncaster is one of twelve districts in the United Kingdom to have a directly elected mayor, currently Ros Jones, who was re-elected in 2021.

[38] Alongside seven other areas, Doncaster was announced to have succeeded in its bid to gain city status on 20 May 2022 as part of the Platinum Jubilee of Elizabeth II.

Closure of coal mines in the 1970s and early 1980s caused economic difficulties; the town then developed its service industry, drawing on the good communication links with the rest of the UK.

Thorne and Hatfield Moors, east of Doncaster, is the largest area of low-lying peat bog in the United Kingdom.

Another aim of the green belt is to encourage recreation and leisure interests,[55] with rural landscape features, greenfield areas and facilities including the River Don and valley west of Hexthorpe; Hexthorpe Park; Cusworth Hall, museum and country park; Potteric Carr and Huxter Well Marsh; and the Trans Pennine Trail.

Its low elevation in the Don Valley, in the lee of the Pennines, and inland from the North Sea, mean daytime summer temperatures are no lower than parts of South East England, despite the more northerly location.

The nearby town of Bawtry, slightly further south, still holds the UK's September monthly record high temperature of 35.6 °C (96.1 °F),[57] set in 1906.

Total annual precipitation is slightly below 560 mm (22 in),[61] which is comparable to the driest parts of the UK, due to Doncaster's location in the rain shadow of the Pennines.

[79] Today, Doncaster railway station is a principal stop and interchange on the East Coast Main Line; it is linked directly to towns and cities across the UK.

Within months of the war ending the station was put up for sale and two of its three Belfast hangars, the same type that now forms the basis for the Royal Air Force Museum at Hendon, were sold to a Sheffield motor manufacturing company for storage and assembly at Finningley.

In 1944, after being equipped with American-made Douglas DC-3 Dakotas, the squadron moved south to take part in Operation Overlord and later in the airborne invasion at Arnhem, where Flight Lieutenant David Lord was awarded a posthumous Victoria Cross.

In 1930, International Harvester (IH) started the production of agricultural implements at a factory on Wheatley Hall Road and later at another in the Carr Hill area of Doncaster.

By 1960, the factory was making a range of tractors from scratch, designed specifically for British and European markets and sold under the 'McCormick International' name.

Doncaster Sheffield Airport opened in 2005, handling its last passenger flight in November 2022 after the Peel Group cited it was unlikely to return to profitability.

[99] The club had, until recent years, a long tradition of providing England internationals and was a founder member of the FA WSL.