Sheffield

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Sheffield City Council
http://www.sheffield.gov.uk/

City of Sheffield
Geography
Status:	Metropolitan borough, City (1893)
Region:	Yorkshire and the Humber
Ceremonial County:	South Yorkshire
Area: - Total	Ranked 129th 367.94 km² (142 sq. mi)
Admin. HQ:	Sheffield
ONS code:	00CG
Demographics
Population: - Total () - Density	Ranked / km²
Ethnicity:	91.2% White 4.6% S.Asian 3.4% Black or Mixed 0.8% Other
Politics
Leadership:	Leader & Cabinet
Executive:
MPs:	Clive Betts, David Blunkett, Richard Caborn, Nick Clegg, Meg Munn, Angela Smith

Sheffield is a city and metropolitan borough in South Yorkshire in the north of England. It is so named because of its origins in a field on the River Sheaf that runs through the town. The city has grown from its industrial roots to encompass a wide economic base.

The population of the City of Sheffield is estimated at 516,100 people (2004),The mid-2004 population estimate for the City of Sheffield was 516,100 according to the Office for National Statistics (accessed 21 December 2005). It should be noted that this figure includes the whole area included in the city. Some population figures, for example those given at List of English cities by population use just the urban core of the city and therefore are lower. and it is one of the eight largest English cities outside London that form the English Core Cities Group.

The city has become world famous for its production of steel. Many innovations in the industry have been developed locally, including crucible and stainless steel . This fuelled an almost tenfold increase in the population since the start of Industrial Revolution. It gained its city charter in 1893 and became officially titled the City of Sheffield. International competition caused a decline in local industry during the 1970s and 1980s, affecting Sheffield's population. In recent years the city has attempted to reinvent itself as a sporting and technology city; there are signs that this is reversing its fortunes.

The present city boundaries were set in 1974, when the former county borough of Sheffield merged with Stocksbridge Urban District and two parishes from the Wortley Rural District. This area includes a significant part of the countryside surrounding the main urban region. Roughly a third of Sheffield lies in the Peak District National Park (no other English city has a national park within its boundary), and Sheffield is officially Europe's greenest city, having won the 2005 Entente Florale competition. This was helped by the fact that Sheffield contains over 150 woodland spaces and 50 public parks.Facts and Figures (Accessed 27 December 2005).

Geography

Sheffield is located at . It lies directly beside Rotherham, from which it is separated by the M1 motorway. Although Barnsley Metropolitan Borough also borders Sheffield to the north, the town itself is a few miles further. 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.J. G. Harston (2005) The borders of Sheffield from 1843 to 1994 (Accessed 28 December 2005) Directly to the west of the city is the Peak District National Park and the Pennine hill range.

Sheffield is the most geographically diverse city in England."Case Study—Sheffield, UK". Greenstructures and Urban Planning. (Accessed 26 September 2005) The city nestles in a natural amphitheatre created by seven hillsIt is often stated that Sheffield is built on seven hills (for an example see Sheffield Hallam University's guide to the city for new students). However, a study by J.G.Harston found there to be eight. 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 10 m above sea level, while some parts of the city are at over 500 metres (1,640 ft). However, 89% of the housing in the city is between 100 and 200 metres (330 & 660 ft) above sea level.

With an estimated total of over two million trees, Sheffield has more trees per person than any other city in Europe. It has over 170 woodlands (covering 28.27 km² / 10.9 mi²), 78 public parks (covering 18.30 km² / 7.1 mi²) and 10 public gardens. Added to the 134.66 km² (52 mi²) of national park and 10.87 km² (4.2 mi²) of water this means that 61% of the city is greenspace.

Sheffield also has more types of habitat than any city in the United Kingdom: urban, parkland and woodland, agricultural and arable land, moors, meadows and freshwater-based habitats. Large parts of the city are designated as sites of special scientific interest including several urban areas.

People

See also: List of famous residents of Sheffield and ''People of Sheffield

People from Sheffield are called Sheffielders. They are also colloquially known to people in Barnsley, Doncaster, Rotherham and Chesterfield as "Dee-dars" (which derives from their pronunciation of the "th" in the dialectal words "thee" and "thou"),Alexander, Don (2001). Orreight Mi Ol': observations on dialect, humour and local lore of Sheffield & District. Sheffield: ALD Design and Print. ISBN 1901587185 although the term is in decline and is not nearly as prevalent as "Scouse" is for "Liverpudlian" or "Geordie" is for "Novocastrian". Many Yorkshire dialect words and aspects of pronunciation derive from old NorseYorkshire Dialect Words of Old Norse Origin. The Vikings (accessed 5 January 2005) due to the Viking influence in this region.

Year	Population Historical population (Accessed 4 December 2005)
1801	60,095
1851	161,475
1901	451,195
1921	543,336
1941	569,884
1951	577,050
1961	574,915
1971	572,794
1981	530,844
1991	528,708
2001	513,234

At the time of the 2001 UK census, the ethnic make-up of Sheffield's population was 91.2% White, 4.6% Asian, 1.6 mixed and 1.8% Black. Sheffield also has large Polish, Somali, Slovak, Yemeni and Kosovar populations. 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.Sheffield profile (Accessed 21 December 2005)The largest quinary group is 20- to 24-year-olds (9.2%), mainly because of the large university population (45,000+).Mid-2004 population estimates. National Statistics. (Accessed 21 December 2005)

Districts

Main article: Districts of Sheffield

Sheffield is made up of numerous districts that vary widely in size and history. Many of these districts developed from villages or hamlets that have become absorbed into Sheffield as the city has grown. For this reason, whilst the centre of most districts is easy to define, the boundaries of many of the districts are ambiguous. Some of the more famous districts sometimes are used to describe the surrounding area as well. One such district is Hillsborough, which has the stadium named after it despite being located in Owlerton.

The districts are largely ignored by the administrative and political divisions of the city; instead it is divided into 28 electoral wards,Sheffield's Ward Boundaries. Sheffield City Council website (Accessed 29 December 2005) with each ward generally covering 4–6 districts. The electoral wards are grouped into six parliamentary constituencies, although because of a different review cycle, the ward and constituency boundaries are currently not all conterminous. Sheffield is largely unparished, but Bradfield and Ecclesfield have parish councils, and Stocksbridge has a town council.

History

Main article: History of Sheffield

The area that is now the City of Sheffield has been occupied since at least the last ice age,Experts put date to UK rock art. BBC News. (Accessed 27 December 2005). but the settlements that grew to form Sheffield date from the second half of the 1st millennium, and are of Anglo-Saxon and Danish origin.Vickers, J. Edward MBE (1999). Old Sheffield Town. An Historical Miscellany (2nd ed.). Sheffield: The Hallamshire Press Limited. ISBN 1-874718-44-X. 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.In an entry dated 827 the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle states "Egbert led an army against the Northumbrians as far as Dore, where they met him, and offered terms of obedience and subjection, on the acceptance of which they returned home" (transcription). Most sources (for example Vickers, 1999 above) state that the date given in the chronicle is incorrect, and that 829 is the more likely date for this event. This event made Egbert the first Saxon to claim to be king of all of England. After the Norman conquest, Sheffield Castle was built to control 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,Sheffield Market History. Sheffield Markets. (Accessed 27 December 2005) and Shefffield 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 TalesGeoffrey Chaucer in The Reeve’s Tale from his book The Canterbury Tales wrote: "Ther was no man, for peril, dorste hym touche. A Sheffeld thwitel baar he in his hose. Round was his face, and camus was his nose", and by 1600 it had become the main centre of cutlery production in England, overseen by The Company of Cutlers in Hallamshire. From 1570 to 1584 Mary, Queen of Scots was held as a prisoner in Sheffield Castle and Sheffield Manor.

In 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 available, and at about the same time a technique for fusing a thin sheet of silver onto a copper ingot to produce silver plating was invented and became widely known as Sheffield plate. These innovations spurred the growth of Sheffield as an industrial town. However, the loss of some important export markets led to a recession in the late 18th and early 19th centuries. The resulting poor conditions culminated in a cholera epidemic that killed 402 people in 1832. The industrial revolution saw a resurgence of Sheffield through the 19th century. As a result of its growing population, the town was incorporated as a Borough in 1842 and granted a city charter in 1893.History of the Lord Mayor. Sheffield City Council website. (Accessed 27 December 2005) 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, a flood that killed 270 people and devastated large parts of the town. The growing population also led to the construction of a large number of back-to-back slums, which, along with severe pollution from the factories, inspired George Orwell, writing in 1937, to declare, "Sheffield, I suppose, could justly claim to be called the ugliest town in the Old World".George Orwell (1937). The Road to Wigan Pier, chapter 7.

A recession in the 1930s was only halted by the increasing tension as World War II loomed. The steel factories of Sheffield were set to work making weapons and ammunition for the war. As a result, once war was declared, the city became a target for bombing raids, the heaviest of which occurred over the nights of 12 December and 15 December 1940 (now known as the Sheffield Blitz). More than 660 lives were lost and numerous buildings were destroyed.The Story of the Sheffield Blitz. Sheffield Genealogy Family & Social History (Accessed 28 December 2005)

Following the war, in the 1950s and 1960s, many of the 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. Increased automation and competition from abroad resulted in the closure of many of the steel mills. The 1980s saw the worst of this run-down of Sheffield's industries (along with those of many other areas in the UK), culminating with the 1984/5 miners' strike. 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 speeding the decline of the city centre. Attempts to regenerate the city were kick-started when the city hosted the 1991 World Student Games, which necessitated the construction of new sporting facilities such as the Sheffield Arena, Don Valley Stadium and the Ponds Forge complex. The city is now changing rapidly as new projects aim to regenerate run-down parts of the city. One such project, the Heart of the City Project, has seen a number of public works in the city centre: the Peace Gardens were renovated in 1998, the Millennium Galleries opened in April 2001, and the Winter Gardens were opened on 22 May 2003. A number of other projects grouped under the title Sheffield One aim to regenerate the whole of the city centre.

Economy and Industry

Labour ProfileLabour profile (Accessed 4 December 2005)
Total employee jobs	239,941
Full-time	156,407	65.2%
Part-time	83,533	34.8%
Manufacturing	33,568	14.0%
Construction	9,239	3.9%
Services	196,646	82.0%
Distribution, hotels & restaurants	57,924	24.1%
Transport & communications	11,575	4.8%
Finance, IT, other business activities	43,694	18.2%
Public admin, education & health	70,442	29.4%
Other services	13,011	5.4%
Tourism-related	18,146	7.6%

After many years of decline, there are now signs that the Sheffield economy is seeing a revival. The 2004 Barclays Bank Financial Planning study"Wealth hotspots 'outside London'". BBC News. (Accessed 7 July 2004) 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 FrankSheffield 'hotbed' for investment BBC News (Accessed 17 October 2005) revealed that Sheffield was the fastest-growing city outside of London for office and residential space and rents during the second half of 2004. Some £250 million has also been invested in the city during 2005. The Sheffield economy is worth £7.4 billion (2003 GVA).Headline GVA by NUTS3 area at current basic prices 1995 to 2003 Economy worth (Accessed 22 December 2005)

Sheffield has an international reputation for metallurgy and steel-making.There are numerous sources showing the international reputation of Sheffield for metallurgy, and in particular steel and cutlery manufacture. Some examples are: the Oxford English Dictionary, which begins its entry for Sheffield, "The name of a manufacturing city of Yorkshire, famous for cutlery"; and the Encyclopaedia Britannica, which in its entry for Sheffield states that by 1830 Sheffield had earned "recognition as the world centre of high-grade steel manufacture". David Hey in the preface to his 1997 book Mesters to Masters: A History of the Company of Cutlers in Hallamshire. (Oxford University Press, ISBN 0198289979) states "It (Sheffield) was known for its cutlery wares long before the incorporation of the Cutlers' Company in 1624, and long before it acquired an international reputation as the steel capital of the world." Many innovations in these fields have been made in Sheffield. Benjamin Huntsman discovered the crucible technique in the 1740s at his workshop in Handsworth. This process was made 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.

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 currently produces more steel per year than at any other time in its history.Government News Network (Accessed 23 October 2005) However, the industry is now less noticeable as it has become highly automated and employs far fewer staff than in the past.

Sheffield is also a major retail centre, although it compares unfavourably with other major cities, it is home to many High Street and department stores as well as designer boutiques. The main city centre shopping areas are on The Moor precinct, Fargate, Orchard Square and the Devonshire Quarter. Department stores in Sheffield City centre include John Lewis, Marks and Spencer, Atkinsons, Castle House Co-op 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 and the Crystal Peaks shopping centre. There are also several retail parks around Crystal Peaks.

In a 2005 survey on spending potential, Meadowhall came 16th (second in out-of-town shopping centres behind Bluewater) with £977 million while Sheffield city centre came 18th with £953 million.CACI survey retail rankings (Accessed 5 October 2005) In a 2004 survey on the top retail destinations, Meadowhall was 20th while Sheffield was 35th.Expirian Website 2 March 2004 press release on retail rankings (Accessed 5 October 2005) In both cases Sheffield is unique in being the only major city to have a shopping centre above the city centre in the lists. It is hoped that this problem can be rectified by the creation of the £500 million New Retail Quarter project.New Retail Quater (Accessed 28 December 2005)

Government and politics

Sheffield is governed by the elected Sheffield City Council. For most of the council's history it has been controlled by the Labour Party. There was, however, a brief period of Liberal Democrat control at the turn of the century. There are 84 councillors; the current council leader is Jan Wilson. The city also has a Lord Mayor. In the past the Office of Mayor had considerable authority, and carried with it executive powers over the finances and affairs of the city council. Today it is simply a ceremonial role. The current Lord Mayor is Jackie Drayton.

The majority of council-owned facilities are now operated by independent charitable trusts. Sheffield International Venues runs many of the cities sporting and leisure facilities, including Sheffield Arena and Don Valley Stadium. Sheffield Galleries and Museums Trust and the Sheffield Industrial Museums Trust take care of galleries and museums owned by the council. These include the Millennium Galleries, Lyceum Theatre and the Crucible Theatre.

In 2004/5 the Gross Revenue Expenditure of £1,229 million was distributed as follows:Sheffield City Council Statement of Accounts 2004/2005 (Accessed 26 December 2005)

Education 33%
Housing 25%
Social Services 17%
Other Services 11%
Highways, Transportation and Planning 6%
Leisure and Tourism 5%
Refuse Collection and Disposal 2%
Environmental Health 1%

The city currently returns six MPs to the House of Commons, but this will be reduced to five at the next election as one constituency is shared with Barnsley.

International links

Sheffield is formally twinned with:

There are more informal links with:

Kawasaki, Japan
Kitwe, Zambia
Pittsburgh, United States.Sheffield City Council: International Links (Accessed 27 December 2005)

Sheffield has also had close links with Poland, since Polish ex-servicemen who had fought alongside British forces during the Second World War settled in the city. As a result a Polish consulate was opened in the City in 1997, the first new Polish consulate to open in the UK for over 60 years.Polish Consulate in Sheffield (Accessed 27 December 2005)

Sport

Sheffield has a long sporting heritage. In 1857 a collective of cricketers formed the world's first-ever official football club, Sheffield F.C., and by 1860 there were 15 football clubs in Sheffield. There are now two local clubs in the Football League: Sheffield United and Sheffield Wednesday, and two major non-league sides: Sheffield F.C. and Hallam F.C. (the two oldest club sides in the world). Hallam F.C. still play at the world's oldest football ground near the suburb of Crosspool.

Sheffield also has close ties with snooker, due to the fact that the city's Crucible Theatre is the venue for the World Snooker Championships. The English squash open is also held there every year. The city also boasts the Sheffield Eagles rugby league, Sheffield Sharks basketball and Sheffield Steelers ice hockey teams. Sheffield is home to 2004 World Superbike champion James Toseland and of climber Joe Simpson. Former athlete and world record holder, Sebastian Coe grew up in the city and began his career as a member of the Hallamshire Harriers.

Many of Sheffield's extensive sporting facilities were built for the World Student Games, which the city hosted in 1991. They include the Don Valley International Athletics Stadium, Sheffield Arena, and Ponds Forge international diving and swimming complex, where Olympic medallist Leon Taylor trains. There are also facilities for golf, climbing and bowling, as well as a newly inaugurated (2003) national ice-skating arena (IceSheffield). The Sheffield Ski Village is the largest artificial ski resort in Europe, and is due to undergo a major expansion soon.The city also has two indoor climbing centres. Sheffield was the UK's first National City of Sport and is now home to the English Institute of Sport (EIS). Sheffield has taken a bid to either host the 2014 Commonwealth Games or the 2018 Commonwealth Games.

The City of Sheffield Athletic Club has taken advantage of the excellent facilities in the city and has training bases at Don Valley Stadium and the English Institute of Sport. The club is one of the north of England's premier clubs, with a vibrant mix of athletes - from 8 year olds to Seniors.

Culture and attractions

7.2% of Sheffield's working population are employed in the creative industries, well above the national average of 4%. Open Up Sheffield is an annual event over the first two weekends in May where local visual artists and fine craft workers invite the public to their studios and other venues.

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 hailing from there. These include the Human League, Heaven 17, the Thompson Twins, Wavestar 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. Moloko and Autechre, one of the leading lights of so-called intelligent dance music, are also based in Sheffield. The city is also home to a number of nightclubs including Gatecrasher One, one of the most popular nightclubs in the north of England and Corporation, a more rock and metal nightclub popular with many students.

Sheffield has also seen the birth of Pulp, Def Leppard, Joe Cocker, The Longpigs and the free improvisers Derek Bailey and Tony Oxley. 1998 Mercury Music Prize award winners Gomez are also connected to Sheffield, as some of the founding members went to Sheffield Hallam University together.

The Arctic Monkeys, who have recently exploded onto the UK music scene with the fastest selling debut album of all time,rockfeedback.com Arctic Monkeys review (Accessed 27 December 2005), Milburn, the math rock band 65daysofstatic, and classic rockers Firegarden are four of the most recent additions to the list.

Sheffield also has a large Hip/Hop and R'n'B music scene and is home to artists such as NoXcuse and Hoodz Underground and is at the centre of the Yorkshire Hip Hop scene.

The city's ties with music were acknowledged in 1999, when the National Centre for Popular Music, a museum dedicated to the subject of popular music, was opened. 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 Leadmill, Corporation, the Boardwalk, the City Hall, the University of Sheffield and the Studio Theatre at the Crucible Theatre. Smaller venues supporting the local scene include The Grapes, D 'n' R Live (formerly Under The Boardwalk) and The Cricketers. Sheffield also has a number of local orchestras including the Hallam Sinfonia, Sheffield Symphony Orchestra, the Sheffield Chamber Orchestra, and the Sheffield Philharmonic Orchestra.

Attractions

Sheffield has two major theatres, the Lyceum Theatre and the Crucible Theatre, which together with the smaller Studio Theatre make up the largest theatre complex outside London.Sheffield Theatres (Accessed 26 December 2005) There are four major art galleries, including the modern Millennium Galleries and the Site Gallery, which specialises in multimedia.

The city also has a number of other attractions such as the Sheffield Winter Gardens and the Peace Gardens. The Botanical Gardens are currently undergoing a £6.7-million-pound restoration. There is also a city farm at Heeley City Farm and a second animal collection in Graves Park that is open to the public. The city also has several museums, including the Sheffield City Museum, the Kelham Island Museum, the Sheffield Fire and Police Museum, Abbeydale Industrial Hamlet and Shepherd Wheel. Victoria Quays is also a popular canal-side leisure and office quarter.

There are about 1,000 listed buildings in Sheffield (including the whole of the Sheffield postal district). Of these, only five are Grade I listed. 42 are Grade II*, the rest being Grade II listed. Compared with other English cities Sheffield has few Grade I buildings. 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.Harman, R. & Minnis, J. (2004) Pevsner City Guides: Sheffield p3. New Haven & London: Yale University Press. ISBN 0300105851

Large parts of the city are designated as sites of special scientific interest (areas of land which the British Government considers to be of special interest by virtue of its fauna, flora, geological or physiographical features) including several urban areas.

Media and film

The films The Full Monty, Threads, When Saturday Comes and Whatever Happened to Harold Smith? were based in the city. F.I.S.T. also included several scenes filmed in Sheffield. Sheffield's daily newspaper is the Sheffield Star, complemented by the weekly Sheffield Telegraph. The BBC's Radio Sheffield and the independent Hallam FM and sister station Magic AM broadcast to the city. The Sheffield International Documentary Festival, the UK's leading documentary festival, has been run annually since 1994 at the Showroom Cinema. A song by The Clash titled "This Is England" features the lyric: "This is England / This knife of Sheffield steel / This is England / This is how we feel." Sheffield will host the Awards of the International Indian Film Academy in 2007.

Education

Sheffield has two universities, the University of Sheffield and Sheffield Hallam University. The two combined bring 45,000 students to the city every year, including many from the Far East. As a result of its large student population, Sheffield has many bars, cafes, clubs and shops as well as student housing to accommodate them.

Sheffield has only two colleges: Longley Park Sixth Form College, opened in 2004, and Sheffield College, created from the merger of six colleges around the city, since reduced to just three: Castle College in the city centre, Hillsborough College and Norton College. There are also 141 primary schools and 23 secondary schools, of which seven have sixth forms, most notably High Storrs School, Silverdale School, Tapton School and King Edward VII School in the south of Sheffield. There are also seven private schools.

Transport

There are two main interchanges for all public transport modes (national and local rail, tram, local buses, coaches) at Meadowhall and in the city centre.

National and international travel

National and regional roads

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; 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. The A57 and A61 roads are the major trunk roads through Sheffield, linking Sheffield with Manchester, Worksop, Barnsley, and Chesterfield.

National rail

The main line south from Sheffield links the city to the East Midlands and London: providing direct services to Nottingham, Derby, Leicester, Bedford (the fastest train Sheffield to London is 2 hours). Also running through Sheffied is the main NE/SW cross-country line which links the East of Scotland and Northeast of England directly with West and South Yorkshire, the West Midlands, and the Southwest: providing direct services to Aberdeen, Edinburgh, Newcastle, Darlington, York, Leeds, Birmingham, Bristol, Taunton, and Exeter. Sheffield also lies on the line linking Liverpool and Manchester with Hull and East Anglia: providing direct services to Liverpool, Manchester, Hull, Lincoln, Ely and Norwich. The main station for all these services is Sheffield Station on the south-eastern edge of the city centre. The station at Meadowhall serves all trains travelling northeast except the fastest. Passenger rail services through Sheffield are provided by Midland Mainline, Virgin Trains, Central Trains, TransPennine Express, and Northern Rail.UK rail network map (PDF) showing which train companies operate on each route. Provided by National Rail Enquiries (Accessed 28 December 2005)

Coaches

Sheffield is an important hub in the national network of long-distance buses (coaches), and there are direct services from distant cities such as Plymouth and Edinburgh.

Air

The closest international airport to Sheffield is Robin Hood Airport Doncaster Sheffield, which is located 18 miles from the city centre. The Airport opened on April 28 2005 and is served mainly by budget airlines and currently handles around one million passengers a year. Sheffield City Airport opened in 1997 but, due in part to its short runway and lack of radar, has been unable to capitalise on the boom in low cost air travel. Manchester International Airport, Leeds Bradford International Airport and Nottingham East Midlands Airport all lie within a one hour's drive of the city. Manchester International Airport is connected to Sheffield by an direct train every hour.

Local travel

Local roads

The A57 and A61 roads are the major trunk roads through Sheffield. These run east-west and north-south, respectively, crossing in the city centre. Other major roads generally radiate spoke-like from the city centre. An inner ring road, mostly constructed in the 1970s and currently (2006) being extended to form a complete ring, allows traffic to avoid the city centre, and an outer "ring road" runs to the east, near the edge of the city, but does not serve the western side of Sheffield.

Local rail

The famously hilly topography of Sheffield might seem to rule out rail travel for local travelling. To the East of the city centre, the flatter landscape is traversed by several busy railway lines to the north, east, and south east, bringing workers from all over South Yorkshire as well as from the closer parts of 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; Sheffield Midland and Meadowhall, there are four suburban stations at Chapeltown, Darnall, Woodhouse and near Dore.

Light rail

The light rail system Sheffield Supertram, opened in 1994, serves the city. Its network consists of three spokes that run from the city centre out to Hillsborough, Halfway, and Meadowhall.Stagecoach Supertram:About Us (Accessed 28 December 2005)

Local buses

A sizeable bus infrastructure operates from a main hub at Pond Street bus station. Other bus stations lie at Meadowhall and Hillsborough. A flurry of new operators were created after deregulation in the 1986, including Caldaire-owned Sheffield & District, and independents like Yorkshire Terrier, Sheaf Line, Andrew's, Sheffield Omnibus and Northern Bus. The majority of these gradually amalgamated, Andrew's, Terrier, Sheaf Line and Sheffield Ominibus ending up with the Traction Group (or Yorkshire Traction), Sheffield & District and Sheffield United Travel ending up with Mainline and Northern Bus with successor First Mainline, leaving First South Yorkshire (formerly First Mainline), owned by FirstGroup plc, as by far the largest bus operator. Stagecoach Sheffield (formerly Yorkshire Traction's Sheffield operation, Yorkshire Terrier), Stagecoach East Midlands, TM Travel and Arriva Yorkshire also run bus routes in the city. In recent years a series of price rises and service cuts, by Mainline and First, has seen bus ridership dropCall for action to halt fall in bus passengers. Sheffield Star, 16 August 2005 and has prompted angry commuters to start a campaign called We Want Our Buses BackNext stop in bus protest campaign. Sheffield Star, 31 January 2006.

Cycling

Although hilly, Sheffield is compact and has few major trunk roads running through it. 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, and has a developing Strategic Cycle Network within the city. The Peak District National Park, an area of outstanding natural beauty popular with both on- and off-road cyclists, is so close to Sheffield that part of the park lies within the city boundary, and there are green routes into the park almost from the city centre.

References and notes

External links

Sheffield City Council Website
BBC South Yorkshire
Sheffield Today Site (News from the "Sheffield Star" Newspaper)
Help for those researching their Sheffield ancestry
Sheffield Forum - 20,000+ members, mostly from Sheffield
City of Sheffield Athletic Club website

Guides

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