Sheffield () is a
city and
metropolitan borough of
South Yorkshire, England. Its name derives from the
River Sheaf, which runs through the city.
Historically a part of the
West Riding of Yorkshire, and partly Derbyshire, the city has grown from its largely industrial roots to encompass a wider economic base. The population of the City of Sheffield is () and it is one of the eight largest regional English cities that make up the
English Core Cities Group.
During the 19th century, Sheffield gained an international reputation for steel production. Many innovations were developed locally, including crucible and stainless steel, fuelling an almost tenfold increase in the population during the Industrial Revolution. Sheffield received its municipal charter in 1893, officially becoming the City of Sheffield. International competition in iron and steel caused a decline in traditional local industries during the 1970s and 1980s, coinciding with the collapse of coal mining in the area.
The 21st century has seen extensive redevelopment in Sheffield along with other British cities. Sheffield's gross value added (GVA) has increased by 60% since 1997, standing at £9.2 billion in 2007. The economy has experienced steady growth averaging around 5% annually, greater than that of the broader region of Yorkshire and the Humber.
The city is located the valleys of the River Don and its four tributaries, the Loxley, the Porter Brook, the Rivelin, and the Sheaf, from which the city takes its name. 61% of the Sheffield’s entire area is green space, and a third of the city lies within the Peak District National Park. There are more than 200 parks, woodlands and gardens in the city, and an estimated 2.5 million trees, giving Sheffield the highest ratio of trees to people of any city in Europe.
History
ruins as they appeared c1819]]
The area now occupied by the City of Sheffield has been inhabited since at least the late
Upper Palaeolithic period, about 12,800 years ago. The earliest evidence of human occupation in the Sheffield area was found at
Creswell Crags to the east of the city. In the
Iron Age the area became the southernmost territory of the
Pennine tribe called the
Brigantes. It is this tribe who are thought to have constructed several hill forts in and around Sheffield. Gradually,
Anglian settlers pushed west from the kingdom of
Deira. A Celtic presence within the Sheffield area is evidenced by two settlements called
Wales and Waleswood close to Sheffield. The settlements that grew and merged to form Sheffield, however, date from the second half of the 1st millennium, and are of
Anglo-Saxon and
Danish origin. In Anglo-Saxon times, the Sheffield area straddled the border between the kingdoms of
Mercia and
Northumbria. The
Anglo-Saxon Chronicle reports that
King Eanred of
Northumbria submitted to
King Egbert of
Wessex at the hamlet of
Dore (now a suburb of Sheffield) in 829, a key event in the unification of the kingdom of England under the House of Wessex. After the
Norman conquest,
Sheffield Castle was built to protect the local settlements, and a small town developed that is the nucleus of the modern city.
By 1296, a market had been established at what is now known as Castle Square, and Sheffield subsequently grew into a small market town. In the 14th century, Sheffield was already noted for the production of knives, as mentioned in Geoffrey Chaucer's The Canterbury Tales, and by the early 1600s it had become the main centre of cutlery manufacture in England outside of London, overseen by the Company of Cutlers in Hallamshire. From 1570 to 1584, Mary, Queen of Scots, was imprisoned in Sheffield Castle and Sheffield Manor.
, the original dam wall of this reservoir collapsed in 1864 causing the Great Sheffield Flood]]
During the 1740s, a form of the crucible steel process was discovered that allowed the manufacture of a better quality of steel than had previously been possible. In about the same period, a technique was developed for fusing a thin sheet of silver onto a copper ingot to produce silver plating, which became widely known as Sheffield plate. These innovations spurred Sheffield's growth as an industrial town, but the loss of some important export markets led to a recession in the late 18th and early 19th century. The resulting poor conditions culminated in a cholera epidemic that killed 402 people in 1832. The influx of people also led to demand for better water supplies, and a number of new reservoirs were constructed on the outskirts of the town. The collapse of the dam wall of one of these reservoirs in 1864 resulted in the Great Sheffield Flood, which killed 270 people and devastated large parts of the town. The growing population led to the construction of many back-to-back dwellings that, along with severe pollution from the factories, inspired George Orwell in 1937 to write: "Sheffield, I suppose, could justly claim to be called the ugliest town in the Old World".
A recession in the 1930s was halted by increasing international tensions as the Second World War loomed; Sheffield's steel factories were set to work manufacturing weapons and ammunition for the war effort. As a result, the city became a target for bombing raids, the heaviest of which occurred on the nights of 12 and 15 December 1940, now known as the Sheffield Blitz. More than 660 lives were lost and many buildings destroyed.
, an example of 1950/60s council housing estates in Sheffield]]
In the 1950s and 1960s, many of the city's slums were demolished, and replaced with housing schemes such as the Park Hill flats. Large parts of the city centre were also cleared to make way for a new system of roads. The building of the Meadowhall shopping centre on the site of a former steelworks in 1990 was a mixed blessing, creating much needed jobs but hastening the decline of the city centre. Attempts to regenerate the city were kick-started when the city hosted the 1991 World Student Games, which saw the construction of new sporting facilities such as the Sheffield Arena, Don Valley Stadium, and the Ponds Forge complex. and made from Sheffield steel.
Sheffield was particularly hard-hit during the 2007 United Kingdom floods and the 2010 Big Freeze.
Government
, adjacent to the
Peace Gardens, is an example of
Victorian era Gothic revival architecture.]]
Sheffield is governed at the local level by
Sheffield City Council. It consists of 84 councillors elected to represent 28
wards—three councillors per ward. It is currently controlled by the
Liberal Democrats, despite losing their majority at the
2010 local election; following this election the distribution of council seats was Liberal Democrats 42, the
Labour Party 39, the
Green Party two and one independent. After a defection of a councillor from the LibDems to Labour, the current council composition is LibDem 41, Labour 40, Green 2, Independent 1.
Paul Scriven has been the leader of the council since the
English local election of 2008. The city also has a
Lord Mayor; though now simply a ceremonial position, in the past the office carried considerable authority, with executive powers over the finances and affairs of the city council. As of 2010, the Lord Mayor is Alan Law.
For much of its history the council was controlled by the Labour Party, and was noted for its leftist sympathies; during the 1980s, when Sheffield City Council was led by David Blunkett, the area gained the epithet the "Socialist Republic of South Yorkshire". However, the Liberal Democrats controlled the Council between 1999 and 2001 and took control again from 2008 to 2010, when they lost their majority. The council is currently hung.
The majority of council-owned facilities are operated by independent charitable trusts. Sheffield International Venues runs many of the city's sporting and leisure facilities, including Sheffield Arena, Don Valley Stadium and English Institute of Sport – Sheffield. Sheffield Galleries and Museums Trust and the Sheffield Industrial Museums Trust take care of galleries and museums owned by the council.
The city returns five Members of Parliament to the House of Commons, with a sixth, the Member of Parliament for Penistone and Stocksbridge representing parts of Sheffield and Barnsley.
Geography
Sheffield is located at . It lies directly beside
Rotherham, from which it is separated largely by the
M1 motorway. Although
Barnsley Metropolitan Borough also borders Sheffield to the north, the town itself is a few miles further away. The southern and western borders of the city are shared with
Derbyshire; in the first half of the 20th century Sheffield extended its borders south into Derbyshire, annexing a number of villages, including
Totley,
Dore and the area now known as
Mosborough Townships. Directly to the west of the city is the
Peak District National Park and the
Pennine hill range.
Sheffield is a geographically diverse city. The city nestles in a natural amphitheatre created by several hills and the confluence of five rivers: Don, Sheaf, Rivelin, Loxley and Porter. As such, much of the city is built on hillsides with views into the city centre or out to the countryside. The city's lowest point is just above sea level near Blackburn Meadows, while some parts of the city are at over ; the highest point being at High Stones, near Margery Hill. However, 79% of the housing in the city is between above sea level.
Estimated to contain over two million trees, Sheffield has more trees per person than any other city in Europe, and according to Sheffield City Council, it is England's greenest city, a claim that was reinforced when it won the 2005 Entente Florale competition. It has over 170 woodlands (covering ), 78 public parks (covering ) and 10 public gardens. Added to the of national park and of water this means that 61% of the city is greenspace. Despite this, about 64% of Sheffield householders live further than from their nearest greenspace, although access is better in less affluent neighbourhoods across the city.
Sheffield also has a very wide variety of habitat, comparing favourably with any city in the United Kingdom: urban, parkland and woodland, agricultural and arable land, moors, meadows and freshwater-based habitats. There are six areas within the city that are designated as sites of special scientific interest.
The present city boundaries were set in 1974 (with slight modification in 1994), when the former county borough of Sheffield merged with Stocksbridge Urban District and two parishes from the Wortley Rural District. until the creation in March 2010 of the South Downs National Park, part of which lies within Brighton & Hove.
Climate
Like the rest of the United Kingdom, the climate in Sheffield is generally
temperate. The
Pennines to the west of the city can create a cool, gloomy and wet environment, but they also provide shelter from the prevailing westerly winds, casting a "rain shadow" across the area. Between 1971 and 2000 Sheffield averaged of rain per year; December was the wettest month with and July the driest with . July was also the hottest month, with an average maximum temperature of . The average minimum temperature in January and February was , though the lowest temperatures recorded in these months can be between to . On average, through the winter months (December–March), there are 67 days during which ground frost occurs. In collaboration with the Stockholm Environment Institute, Sheffield developed a carbon footprint (based on 2004/05 consumption figures) of 5,798,361
tonnes per year. This compares to the UK's total carbon footprint of 698,568,010 tonnes per year. The factors with the greatest impact are housing (34%), transportation (25%), consumer (11%), private services (9%), public services (8%), food (8%), and capital investment (5%). Sheffield City Council has signed up to the campaign.
Subdivisions
Sheffield is made up of numerous suburbs and neighbourhoods, many of which developed from villages or
hamlets that were absorbed into Sheffield as the city grew. These electoral wards are grouped into six
parliamentary constituencies. Sheffield is largely
unparished, but
Bradfield and
Ecclesfield have parish councils, and
Stocksbridge has a town council.
Demography
The
United Kingdom Census 2001 reported a resident population for Sheffield of 513,234, a 1.9% decline from the 1991 census. The racial composition of Sheffield's population was 91.2% White, 4.6% Asian, 1.8% Black, and 1.6% Mixed. In terms of religion, 68.6% of the population are
Christian and 4.6%
Muslim. Other religions represent less than 1% each. The number of people without a religion is above the national average at 17.9%, with 7.8% not stating their religion. The largest
quinary group is 20- to 24-year-olds (9.4%), mainly because of the large university student population.
{| class="wikitable floatleft" style="margin-left: 1em; width: 30em; font-size: 90%;"
!colspan="4"|
Sheffield Compared
|-
!
UK Census 2001 || Sheffield ||
South Yorkshire || England
|-
|Total population||513,234||1,266,338||49,138,831
|-
|Foreign born||6.4%||8.9%||9.2%
|-
|White||91%||95%||91%
|-
|Asian||4.6%||2.6%||4.6%
|-
|Black||1.8%||0.9%||2.3%
|-
|Christian||69%||75%||72%
|-
|Muslim||4.6%||2.5%||3.1%
|-
|Hindu||0.3%||0.2%||1.1%
|-
|No religion||18%||14%||15%
|-
|Over 75 years old||8.0%||7.6%||7.5%
|-
|Unemployed||4.2%||4.1%||3.3%
|}
The population of Sheffield peaked in 1951 at 577,050, and has since declined steadily. However, the mid-2007 population estimate was 530,300—representing an increase of about 17,000 residents since 2001.
Although a city, Sheffield is informally known as "the largest village in England", revealed that, in 2003, the Sheffield district of Hallam was the highest ranking area outside London for overall wealth, the proportion of people earning over £60,000 a year standing at almost 12%. A survey by Knight Frank revealed that Sheffield was the fastest-growing city outside London for office and residential space and rents during the second half of 2004. This can be seen by the current surge of redevelopments, including the City Lofts Tower and accompanying St Paul's Place, Velocity Living, and the Moor redevelopment, the forthcoming NRQ and the recently completed Winter Gardens, Peace Gardens, Millennium Galleries, and many projects under the Sheffield One redevelopment agency. The Sheffield economy grew from £5.6 billion in 1997 (1997 GVA) to £9.2 billion in 2007 (2007 GVA).
The "UK Cities Monitor 2008" placed Sheffield among the top ten "best cities to locate a business today", the city occupying 3rd and 4th places respectively for best office location and best new call centre location. The same report places Sheffield in 3rd place regarding "greenest reputation" and 2nd in terms of the availability of financial incentives.
Sheffield has an international reputation for metallurgy and steel-making. Many innovations in these fields have been made in Sheffield, for example Benjamin Huntsman discovered the crucible technique in the 1740s at his workshop in Handsworth. This process was rendered obsolete in 1856 by Henry Bessemer's invention of the Bessemer converter. Thomas Boulsover invented Sheffield Plate (silver-plated copper) in the early 18th century. Stainless steel was invented by Harry Brearley in 1912, and the work of F. B. Pickering and T. Gladman throughout the 1960s, '70s, and '80s was fundamental to the development of modern high-strength low-alloy steels. Further innovations continue, with new advanced manufacturing technologies and techniques being developed on the Advanced Manufacturing Park by Sheffield's universities and other independent research organisations. Organisations located on the AMP include the Advanced Manufacturing Research Centre (AMRC, a research partnership between the Boeing Company and the University of Sheffield), Castings Technology International (Cti) and TWI (The Welding Institute).
Forgemasters, founded in 1805, is the sole remaining independent steel works in the world and dominates the north east of Sheffield around the Lower Don Valley. The firm has a global reputation for producing the largest and most complex steel forgings and castings and is certified to produce critical nuclear components, with recent projects including the Royal Navy's Astute class submarines. The firm also has the capacity for pouring the largest single ingot (570 tonnes) in Europe and is currently in the process of expanding its capabilities.
While iron and steel have long been the main industries of Sheffield, coal mining has also been a major industry, particularly in the outlying areas, and the Palace of Westminster in London was built using limestone from quarries in the nearby village of Anston. Other areas of employment include call centres, the City Council, universities and hospitals.
Sheffield is a major retail centre, and is home to many High Street and department stores as well as designer boutiques. The main shopping areas in the city centre are on The Moor precinct, Fargate, Orchard Square and the Devonshire Quarter. Department stores in the city centre include John Lewis, Marks and Spencer, Atkinsons and Debenhams. Sheffield's main market is the Castle Market, built above the remains of the castle. Shopping areas outside the city centre include the Meadowhall shopping centre and retail park, Ecclesall Road, London Road, Hillsborough, Firth Park and the Crystal Peaks shopping centre. In a 2010 survey of forecast expenditure at retail centres in the United Kingdom, Meadowhall was ranked 12th and Sheffield city centre 19th.
Sheffield has a District Energy system that exploits the city's domestic waste, by incinerating it and converting the energy from it to electricity. It also provides hot water, which is distributed through over of pipes under the city, via two networks. These networks supply heat and hot water for many buildings throughout the city. These include not only cinemas, hospitals, shops, and offices but also universities (Sheffield Hallam University and the University of Sheffield), and residential properties. Energy generated in a waste plant produces 60 megawatts of thermal energy and up to 19 megawatts of electrical energy from 225,000 tonnes of waste.
Transport
National and international travel
Road
Sheffield is linked into the national motorway network via the
M1 and
M18 motorways. The M1 skirts the north-east of the city, linking Sheffield with
London to the south and
Leeds to the north, and crosses
Tinsley Viaduct near Rotherham; the M18 branches from the M1 close to Sheffield, linking the city with
Doncaster,
Robin Hood Doncaster Sheffield Airport, and the
Humber ports. The
Sheffield Parkway connects the city centre with the motorways.
Train
Major railway routes through
Sheffield railway station include the
Midland Main Line, which links the city to London via the East Midlands, the
Cross Country Route which links the East of Scotland and Northeast of England with the West Midlands and the Southwest, and the lines linking Liverpool and Manchester with Hull and East Anglia. With the redevelopment of St Pancras station (now
St Pancras International) complete, Sheffield has a direct connection to
continental Europe.
East Midlands Trains run services to St Pancras International and
Eurostar run services from there to
France and
Belgium. The
Master Cutler, a named passenger express train running from Sheffield railway station to London St Pancras, is, and has historically been seen as, Sheffield's premier business train and the city's primary connection to the capital.
The coalition government announced in October 2010 that Sheffield would be included in the proposed High Speed Rail network connecting the North of England with London. The plan will see Sheffield and Leeds served by the same line which will connect with another to Manchester just south of Birmingham, with London Euston station being the probable London terminus. Construction of the Yorkshire/East Midlands High Speed line is likely to begin 2025 and services begin operation in 2032. The 560/564 service is a direct connection to London Victoria Coach Station via Chesterfield and Milton Keynes, operating 12 times a day in both directions. The 350 and 240 services connect Sheffield to Manchester Airport and Heathrow & Gatwick Airports respectively. Two megabus services, the M12 and M20, call at Sheffield en route to London from Newcastle upon Tyne and Inverness respectively.
Canal
The
Sheffield and South Yorkshire Navigation (S&SY;) is a system of navigable inland waterways (
canals and canalised rivers) in Yorkshire and
Lincolnshire. Chiefly based on the
River Don, it runs for a length of and has 29
locks. It connects Sheffield,
Rotherham, and
Doncaster with the
River Trent at
Keadby and (via the
New Junction Canal) the
Aire and Calder Navigation.
Air
The closest international airport to Sheffield is
Doncaster Sheffield Airport, which is located from the city centre, on the site of the former
RAF Finningley. The airport opened on 28 April 2005 and is served mainly by charter and budget airlines. It handles about one million passengers a year.
Leeds Bradford International Airport and
East Midlands Airport: Nottingham, Leicester, Derby lie within one hour's drive of the city, and Manchester Airport is connected to Sheffield by
a direct train every hour.
Local travel
terminus at
Park Square. The opposite end connects to the
M1 motorway at Junction 33.]]
The
A57 and
A61 roads are the major trunk roads through Sheffield. allows traffic to avoid the city centre, and an
outer ring road runs to the east, south east and north, nearer the edge of the city, but does not serve the western side of Sheffield. However, there are several local rail routes running along the city's valleys and beyond, connecting it with other parts of
South Yorkshire,
West Yorkshire,
Nottinghamshire,
Lincolnshire and
Derbyshire. These local routes include the
Penistone Line, the
Dearne Valley Line, the
Hope Valley Line, and the
Hallam Line. As well as the main stations of
Sheffield and
Meadowhall, there are four suburban stations, at
Chapeltown,
Darnall,
Woodhouse, and
Dore.
[[File:Sheffield Interchange 2.png|thumb|right|alt=Sheffield Interchange, the main hub for bus and coach operations in Sheffield.
In the foreground is the interchange itself. Visible in the bottom left corner is the new, main entrance to the interchange. In the centre are the long bus stands that form the interchange. Above that is the Digital Campus commercial development built upon an unused section of the interchange. In the top left corner is the 1960s Park Hill flats development and to the right is Sheffield Railway Station. |
Sheffield Interchange]]
The Sheffield Supertram, owned and operated by Stagecoach, opened in 1994, shortly after the similar Metrolink scheme in Manchester. Its network consists of of track and three lines, from Halfway to Malin Bridge (Blue Line), from Meadowhall to Middlewood (Yellow Line), and from Meadowhall to Herdings Park (Purple Line), with all three lines running via the city centre. The system runs on both roads and train tracks, depending upon the section and line. The supertram serves as an important connection between areas in the North East of Sheffield (namely Meadowhall and Valley Centertainment) and the city centre. Because it is operated by the Stagecoach Group, the ticketing system for the Supertram is integrated with Stagecoach buses in Sheffield, meaning passengers can switch between the two modes of transport without having to buy a separate ticket.
Sheffield's local bus infrastructure has its main hub at Sheffield Interchange. Other bus stations lie at Halfway, Hillsborough and Meadowhall. A flurry of new operators were created after deregulation in 1986, though a series of mergers has reduced the number. There are numerous bus operators within Sheffield: First, Stagecoach, TM Travel, Hulleys of Baslow, Powell's Co, K&H; Doyle and Sheffield Community Transport. First South Yorkshire, part of FirstGroup, became by far the largest bus operator and in recent years implemented a series of fare rises and service cuts which saw bus ridership drop. Recent developments have seen Stagecoach Sheffield taking over Yorkshire Terrier, Andrews and parent company Yorkshire Traction, thus forming one company and in the process expanding their bus services in the city. This has resulted in increased competition, and price drops on certain routes. A zero-fare bus service—the FreeBee (Operated by TM Travel and soon to pass over to First)—operates on a circular route around the city centre from the Sheffield Interchange.
In 2008, the Bus Rapid Transit Scheme between Sheffield and Rotherham was approved by the Yorkshire and Humber Assembly's Regional Transport Board. There are plans for two routes; one (the Northern route) via Meadowhall and Templeborough, and the other via the developing employment centre and Waverley.
Cycling
For cycling, although hilly, Sheffield is compact and has few major trunk roads. It is on the
Trans-Pennine Trail, a
National Cycle Network route running from
Southport in the north-west to
Hornsea in the
East Riding.
There are many cycle routes going along country paths in the woods surrounding the city.
Education
, on the
University of Sheffield campus]]
Universities and colleges
Sheffield has two
universities, the
University of Sheffield and
Sheffield Hallam University. The two combined bring about 54,000 students to the city every year. Sheffield University was established in 1897 as University College Sheffield and became the University of Sheffield in 1905. The University is now ranked 40th in the world, 20th in Europe, and 25th in the UK. The university is a member of the
Russell Group and has produced five
Nobel Prize winners.
Sheffield Hallam University's history goes back to 1834 with the establishment of the Sheffield School of Design. During the 1960s several independent colleges (including the School of Design) joined to become Sheffield Polytechnic (Sheffield City Polytechnic from 1976) and was finally renamed Sheffield Hallam University in 1992. Sheffield Hallam University is the eighth largest university in the UK in terms of enrolment.
Robert Winston, the well known
physician,
politician and
TV presenter, is the Chancellor of the university.
Sheffield has two further education colleges, The Sheffield College and Longley Park Sixth Form College. The Sheffield College is organised on a federal basis and was originally created from the merger of six colleges around the city, since reduced to just four: Sheffield City (formerly Castle) near the city centre, Hillsborough, serving the north of the city and Norton and Peaks to the south.
Secondary, Primary and Pre-School education
There are 137
primary schools, 25
secondary schools—of which 8 have
sixth forms: (
High Storrs, King Ecgberts,
King Edward VII,
Silverdale, Meadowhead, and
Tapton,
Notre Dame Catholic High & All Saints Catholic High)—and a sixth-form college,
Longley Park Sixth Form College. The city's five independent private schools include
Birkdale School and the
Sheffield High School for Girls.
There are three academies in the City –
Sheffield Springs Academy,
Sheffield Park Academy and
Parkwood Academy There are also 12 Special schools and a number of Integrated Resource Units in mainstream schools which are, along with all other schools, managed by Sheffield City Council. All schools are non-selective, mixed sex schools. and the world's second-ever,
Hallam F.C., who also play at the
world's oldest football ground in the suburb of
Crosspool. By 1860 there were 15 football clubs in Sheffield, with the first ever amateur league and cup competitions taking place in the city. There are two professional clubs in the
Football League:
Sheffield United and
Sheffield Wednesday. Both Sheffield United and Sheffield Wednesday Play in
Football League One.
Rotherham United, who play in
Football League Two, also play their home games in the city as of 2010, having moved to play at Sheffield's
Don Valley Stadium in 2008 following a dispute with their previous landlord at their traditional home ground of
Millmoor, Rotherham. There are also two major non-league sides:
Sheffield F.C. and
Hallam F.C., although Sheffield now play just outside the city in nearby
Dronfield. Sheffield and Hallam contest what has become known as the Sheffield derby, whilst United and Wednesday contest the
Steel City derby.
There are also facilities for golf,
climbing, and bowling, as well as a newly inaugurated national ice-skating arena (
IceSheffield).
Sheffield is also home to the
Sheffield Steelers ice hockey team who play out of the 8,500 seater
Sheffield Arena. They play in the 10 team professional
Elite Ice Hockey League.
Many of Sheffield's sporting facilities were built for the
World Student Games, which the city hosted in 1991. They include the
Don Valley International Athletics Stadium, the largest athletics stadium in the UK with a capacity of 25,000,
Sheffield Arena, and the
Ponds Forge international diving and swimming complex. Ponds Forge is also the home of
Sheffield City Swimming Club, a local swimming club competing in the speedo league.
The
Sheffield Ski Village is the largest artificial
ski resort in Europe. The city also has three indoor climbing centres. Sheffield was the UK's first National City of Sport and is now home to the
English Institute of Sport – Sheffield, where British athletes are training for the 2012 Olympics.
Sheffield also has close ties with snooker, with the city's Crucible Theatre being the venue for the World Snooker Championships. The English Institute of Sport hosts most of the top fencing competitions each year, including the National Championships for Seniors, Juniors (U20's) and Cadets (U17's) as well as the 2011 Senior European Fencing Championships. The English squash open is also held in the city every year. The International Open and World Matchplay Championship bowls tournaments have both been held at Ponds Forge. The city also hosts the Sheffield Eagles rugby league, Sheffield Tigers rugby union, Sheffield Sharks basketball, Sheffield University Bankers hockey, Sheffield Steelers ice hockey and Sheffield Tigers speedway teams.
Sheffield was selected as a candidate host city by the English Football Association (FA) as part of the English 2018 and 2022 FIFA World Cup bid on 16 December 2009.
Hillsborough Stadium was chosen as the proposed venue for matches in Sheffield.
The bid failed.
Culture and attractions
Sheffield made the shortlist for the first city to be designated
UK City of Culture, but in July 2010 it was announced that
Derry had been selected.
Attractions
Mappin Art Gallery]]
The Sheffield Walk of Fame in the City Centre honours famous Sheffield residents past and present in a similar way to the Hollywood version. Sheffield also had its own Ferris Wheel known as the
Wheel of Sheffield, located atop Fargate shopping precinct. The Wheel was dismantled in October 2010 and moved to London's Hyde Park. Heeley City Farm and
Graves Park are home to Sheffield’s two farm animal collections, both of which are fully open to the public.
There are about 1,100 listed buildings in Sheffield (including the whole of the Sheffield postal district). Of these, only five are Grade I listed. Fifty-nine are Grade II*, but the overwhelming majority are listed as Grade II. Compared to other English cities, Sheffield has few buildings with the highest Grade I listing—Liverpool, for example, has 26 Grade I listed buildings. This situation led the noted architecture historian Nikolaus Pevsner, writing in 1959, to comment that the city was "architecturally a miserable disappointment", with no pre-19th century buildings of any distinction. By contrast, in November 2007, Sheffield's Peace and Winter Gardens beat London's South Bank to gain the Royal Institute of British Architects' Academy of Urbanism "Great Place" Award, as an "outstanding example of how cities can be improved, to make urban spaces as attractive and accessible as possible".
Music
Sheffield has been the home of several well-known bands and musicians, with an unusually large number of
synth pop and other
electronic outfits originating from the city. These include
The Human League,
Heaven 17,
ABC, and the more
industrially inclined
Cabaret Voltaire. This electronic tradition has continued:
techno label
Warp Records was a central pillar of the
Yorkshire Bleeps and Bass scene of the early 1990s, and has gone on to become one of Britain's oldest and best-loved dance music labels. More recently, other popular genres of electronic music such as
bassline house have originated in the city. Sheffield is home to a number of high-profile nightclubs—
Gatecrasher One was one of the most popular nightclubs in the north of England until its destruction by fire on 18 June 2007.
Artists such as:
Joe Cocker,
Pulp,
Paul Carrack,
Def Leppard,
Richard Hawley,
The Longpigs,
Milburn,
Moloko, and
Bring Me the Horizon, along with many other popular and alternative musicians, were born in Sheffield. More recently several
indie bands, including
Arctic Monkeys,
The Long Blondes and Toddla T have emerged from the city as part of what the
NME dubbed the
New Yorkshire movement.
In 1999, the National Centre for Popular Music, a museum dedicated to the subject of popular music, was opened in the city. It was not as successful as was hoped, however, and later evolved to become a live music venue; then in February 2005, the unusual steel-covered building became the students' union for Sheffield Hallam University. Live music venues in the city include the Harley Hotel, Leadmill, West Street Live, the Boardwalk, Dove & Rainbow, The Casbah, The Cremorne, Corporation, New Barrack Tavern, The Broadfield Hotel, the City Hall, the University of Sheffield, the Studio Theatre at the Crucible Theatre, the O2 Academy Sheffield, and The Grapes.
Sheffield hosts a number of festivals, most notably the Grin Up North Sheffield Comedy Festival, and the Tramlines Festival. The Tramlines Festival was launched as an annual music festival in 2009, it is held throughout venues in Sheffield City Centre, and features local and national artists. The city is also home to several local orchestras and choirs, such as the Sheffield Symphony Orchestra, the Sheffield Philharmonic Orchestra, the Sheffield Chamber Orchestra, the City of Sheffield Youth Orchestra, and the Sheffield Philharmonic Chorus.
Theatres
Sheffield has two large theatres, the
Lyceum Theatre and the
Crucible Theatre, which together with the smaller Studio Theatre make up the largest theatre complex outside London, located in Tudor Square. The Crucible theatre is the home (since 1977) of the
world snooker championships and hosts many well known stage productions throughout the year. The Lyceum, which opened in 1897, serves as a venue for touring West End productions and operas by Opera North, as well as locally produced shows. Sheffield also has the Montgomery Theatre, a small 420 seater theatre located a short distance from Tudor Square, opposite the town Hall on Surrey Street.
Museums
Sheffield’s
museums are managed by two distinct organisations.
Museums Sheffield manages the
Weston Park Museum (a Grade II* listed Building),
Millennium Galleries,
Graves Art Gallery and
Bishops House (a preserved
Tudor building located to the south of the city centre).
Sheffield Industrial Museums Trust manages the museums dedicated to Sheffield’s industrial heritage of which there are three.
Kelham Island Museum (located just to the North of the city centre) showcases the citys history of steel manufacturing.
Abbeydale Industrial Hamlet (in the south of the city) is a Grade 1 Listed building and a
Scheduled Ancient Monument.
Shepherd Wheel (in the south-East of the city) is a former water-powered grinding
workshop, Grade II listed, and a Scheduled Ancient Monument.
Greenspace
Sheffield has a reputed 2 million trees and is known as the greenest city in Europe.
Consequently, there are many parks and woods throughout the city and beyond. There are 83
parks in Sheffield (13 ‘City’ Parks, 20 ‘District’ Parks and 50 ‘Local’ Parks) which are located throughout the city. Included in the city parks category are 3 of Sheffield’s 4 public
gardens (The
Sheffield Botanical Gardens,
The Peace Gardens and Hillsborough Walled Gardens, with the
Sheffield Winter Gardens being the separate entity). The Sheffield Botanical Gardens are on a 19 acresite located to the south west of the city centre and date back to 1836. The site includes a large, Grade II listed, Victorian era glasshouse. The Peace Gardens, located adjcant to the
Town Hall and forming part of the Heart of the City project, occupy a 0.67 hectare site in the centre of the city. The site is dominated by its water features, principle among which is the Goodwin Fountain. Made up of 89 individual jets of water, this fountain lies at the corner of the quarter-circle shaped Peace Gardens and is named after a notable Sheffield industrialist. Since their redevelopment in 1998, the peace gardens have received a number of regional and national accolades. Hillsborough Walled Garden is located in
Hillsborough Park, to the north west of the city centre. The gardens date back to 1779 and have been dedicated to the victims of the
Hillsborough Disaster since the redevelopment of the gardens in the early 1990s.
The Winter Garden, lying within the
Heart of the City, is a large wood framed, glass skinned
greenhouse housing some 2,500 plants from around the world.
Also within the city there are a number of nature reserves which when combined occupy of land. There are also 170 woodland areas within the city, 80 of which are classed as ancient.
The South East boundary of the city overlaps with the Peak District National Park, the first national park in England (est. 1951). As a consequence, several communities actually reside within both entities. The Peak District is home to many notable, natural, features and also man-made features such as Chatsworth House, the setting for the BBC series Pride and Prejudice.
In September 2010 Sheffield City Council announced plans to create a new chain of parks spanning the hill side behind Sheffield Station. The park, known as Sheaf Valley Park, will include an arboretum and an open air amphitheatre. The site was once home to a medieval Deer park, latterly owned by the Duke of Norfolk. It is also the largest cinema complex in the United Kingdom, containing some 20 screens in one building. The Odeon, situated on Arundel Gate in the city Centre and Vue, located within Meadowhall Shopping Centre, are the two other mainstream cinemas in the city. The Showroom, an independent cinema showing non-mainstream productions, is located in Sheaf Square, close to Sheffield Station. In 2002 the Showroom was voted as the best Independent cinema in the country by Guardian readers
Owing to its long history, Sheffield has a large number of pubs throughout the city. The oldest pub in the city is the Old Queen's Head situated next to Sheffield Interchange, which is said to be the oldest domestic building in the city, dating back to 1475. West Street, running through the heart of the West End district of the city centre, is home to many pubs, bars, bars and clubs and attracts many student visitors. A recent addition to the city's nightlife is Leopold Square, situated just off the northern end of West Street. Aagrah, an Indian restaurant in the square which serving Kashmiri cuisine, has recently been voted “Best Restaurant Group in the UK” at the prestigious British Curry Awards.
Media and film
Sheffield has two commercial
newspapers,
The Star and
Sheffield Telegraph, both published by
Johnston Press PLC.
The Star has been published daily since 1897; the
Sheffield Telegraph, now a weekly publication, originated in 1855.
Sheffield does not have a television station; regional broadcasters BBC Yorkshire and Yorkshire Television cover the city. Five local radio stations broadcast in the city. The professional services are BBC Radio Sheffield, the independent Hallam FM, and its sister station Magic AM. Sheffield is also home to two FM licensed community radio stations: Sheffield Live 93.2, and Burngreave Community Radio on 103.1.
HBS Radio (Hospital Broadcasting Sheffield) broadcasts a 24 hour service to the Royal Hallamshire, Jessop Wing, Northern General and Weston Park Hospitals. HBS is operated by volunteers from studios at the Royal Hallamshire Hospital and is provided free to bedside terminals via Hospedia and on medium wave 1431am from a transmitter at the Northern General Hospital.
The films and plays The Full Monty, Threads, Looks and Smiles, When Saturday Comes, Whatever Happened to Harold Smith?, The History Boys and Four Lions are set in the city. F.I.S.T. also included several scenes filmed in Sheffield. The documentary festival Sheffield Doc/Fest has been run annually since 1994 at the Showroom Cinema, and in 2007 Sheffield hosted the Awards of the International Indian Film Academy.
Public services
Sheffield is policed by
South Yorkshire Police (a
territorial police force) whose headquarters are in the city. Sheffield constitutes one of its four Basic Command Units (Barnsley, Doncaster and Rotherham being the other three). The force polices an area of approximately 1,554 square kilometres and is the 13th largest force in
England, Wales and Northern Ireland. The force has in its possession one
Police Helicopter, known as Sierra Yankee 99.
Medical services in Sheffield are provided by two NHS Foundation Trusts. Sheffield Teaching Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust provides healthcare to people (primarily adults) throughout Sheffield and South Yorkshire. The trusts title includes the word ‘teaching’ because it undertakes training of medical students at the University of Sheffield and has strong links to Sheffield Hallam University as well. The trust has two campuses: The West Campus containing the Royal Hallamshire Hospital, the Jessop Wing (maternity wing), Weston Park Hospital (specialist cancer treatment) and Charles Clifford Dental Hospital. The Northern General Hospital is the second ‘campus’ and is a large faciliy in the northern suburbs of Sheffield, containing the city’s A&E; department.
Sheffield Children's NHS Foundation Trust provides healthcare for children within the city of Sheffield, South Yorkshire and the UK as a whole.
On the 18th November 2010, Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II inaugurated the Sheffield Institute for Motor Neurone Disease (also known as Sheffield Institute for Translational Neuroscience – SITraN), a unique, world-class facility that has been developed by the University of Sheffield.
Ambulances are provided by the South Yorkshire Ambulance Service, which itself is an NHS trust.
Fire services in Sheffield are provided by South Yorkshire Fire and Rescue Service. For the purposes of fire-fighting and rescue, Sheffield is divived into East and West sub-divisions.
Domestic waste services in Sheffield are provided by Veolia Environmental Services under contract from and on behalf of the council. Domestic recycling services were recently improved with the addition of glass recycling bins for each home.
Council owned/run buildings are maintained by Kier Group Sheffield in partnership with the council.
Sister Cities
The "Sheffield International Linking Committee" promotes Sheffield overseas, especially with four
sister cities:
Anshan City, China
Bochum, Germany
Donetsk, Ukraine
Esteli, Nicaragua
A further four cities have a Friendship Agreement with Sheffield:
Kawasaki, Japan
Kitwe, Zambia
Kotli, Kashmir, Pakistan
Pittsburgh, United States
Two roads in Sheffield have been named after sister cities; a section of the A6102 in Norton is named Bochum Parkway, and a road in Hackenthorpe is named Donetsk Way.
See also
Largest European metropolitan areas
Sheffield City Centre
Timeline of Sheffield history
List of people from Sheffield
People of Sheffield
List of fiction set in Sheffield
References and notes
External links
Sheffield City Council Website
A tale of two cities: the Sheffield Project a report by University of Sheffield commissioned by David Blunkett about inequality within the city
Category:Articles with inconsistent citation formats
Category:Populated places established in the 1st millennium
Category:Cities in Yorkshire and the Humber
Category:Local government districts in South Yorkshire
Category:Metropolitan boroughs
Category:Articles including recorded pronunciations (UK English)
Category:Local government districts of Yorkshire and the Humber
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