Sheffield (city)

I

Introduction

Sheffield (city), city, administrative centre of Sheffield borough, in the metropolitan county of South Yorkshire, north-central England, at the junction of the River Don and four of its tributaries, at the southern foot of the Pennines. The city, a major industrial centre, is itself built on several hills. Population 513,100 (2001 estimate).

II

Economy

Sheffield is a major steel-manufacturing centre, renowned for its stainless steel, special steels, engineering, cutlery, tool-making, and medical equipment. More recently it has developed as a centre for media industries, including sound recording, and video production and design.

III

Places of Interest

Among the outstanding buildings in the city are the former parish church (largely 15th century), which since 1913 has been the cathedral of St Peter and St Paul, Cutler's Hall (built in 1832), and the 15th-century Bishop's House, now a museum of local history. Sheffield also boasts a municipal museum and the fine collections of the Mappin, Ruskin, and Graves art galleries. Also in the city are the University of Sheffield (1905) and Sheffield Hallam University (1992). Sheffield Ski Village is the largest artificial ski-slope resort in Europe. The city also has the Sheffield Eagles rugby league team and two major football teams: Sheffield United and Sheffield Wednesday. In 1995 the light rail transport system Supertram was completed: this modern tramway system operates on 29 km (18 miles) of track in and around the city, each tram carrying 250 passengers. The Meadowhall shopping centre on the outskirts of the city and next to the M1 motorway attracts about 30 million visitors annually, and the Sheffield theatres complex, which includes the Crucible and Lyceum theatres, is one of the largest in the country. The National Centre for Popular Music opened in 1999. The novelist Margaret Drabble, the rock singer Joe Cocker, and the first British astronaut Helen Sharman were born in the city.

IV

History

Sheffield was known as early as the 14th century for the production of knives and swords. Water-power, furnished by local rivers, and the local availability of iron ore and coal were the primary reasons for the community's industrial growth. A silver-plating technique was invented here in 1742, and in the 1850s the inventor, Sir Henry Bessemer, developed a process for the inexpensive manufacture of steel. Such developments contributed to the city's pre-eminence in the British steel trade. Sheffield suffered bomb damage during World War II and has since undergone extensive rebuilding.