Sheffield

Sheffield is a city mainly in southern Yorkshire, England. Arguably one of England's most important cities during the Industrial Revolution of the late-18th and early-19th centuries, Sheffield is historically renown for its stainless steel production and role in the international cutlery trade, with the production of cutlery in the area being recorded from the 14th century. It has been known as "the Cutler's Town" since the late Middle Ages, with "Steel City" being a more recent nickname. As the crow flies, it lies 30 miles south of Leeds, a similar distance north of Derby, 40 miles north-east of Stoke-on-Trent and 32 miles east of Manchester.

The core of modern Sheffield was historically a small market town in the Strafforth wapentake of the West Riding of Yorkshire. First recorded by name in the Domesday Book of 1086, the establishment of the township is attributed to William de Lovetot, who constructed Sheffield's parish church (now the site of Sheffield Cathedral) and motte-and-bailey castle (now demolished) in c. 1100. Urban expansion in the 19th century saw the city's southern suburbs expand into northern Derbyshire, though the city had its own county borough council. Though described as a "city", the city status actually belongs to the larger council area of Sheffield City Council rather than the settlement itself.

There was an Iron Age hill fort at present-day Wincobank, a suburb of Sheffield, thought to have been occupied around 500 BC.

Following the establishment of the kingdom of Deira (approximately covering the same area as the present East Riding of Yorkshire) in c. 450 AD following the arrival of Germanic speakers from the continent, the Sheffield area may have maintained a Celtic presence in the face of the Anglo-Saxons. Sheffield might have been the southernmost part of the Brittonic Celtic kingdom Elmet, at the frontier with the Anglian kingdom of Mercia (established c. 530 AD).^[1] Ecclesfield, which lies 4 miles north of Sheffield city centre, may have been the centre of a Celtic district when Anglo-Saxon pagans settled in the area; its name indicates Welsh eglwys, from Latin ecclesia ("church").^[2] Further evidence for a continued Celtic presence in the Sheffield area is the place-name Wales, which is transparently from Germanic Walha ("foreigner") a term used by Anglo-Saxons to refer to native Celtic Britons; it is also the root of the country-name Wales, whose Welsh language is descended from the Common Brittonic spoken throughout Britain before Old English arrived.

By c. 700 AD, present-day Sheffield city centre formed part of the Anglian kingdom of Northumbria. It was close to the kingdom's southern border with Mercia, with evidence for the border being found in the local place-name Dore which is from Old English dor, the ancestor of present-day English door, indicating a pass between the two kingdoms.^[3] Further toponymic evidence for the border in southern Sheffield includes the name of the Limb Brook, which appears to be from a derivative of Latin limes, the ancestor of the English word limit. The place-name Whirlow means "boundary mound".^[4] The Northumbria-Mercia boundary would latterly form the boundaries of the traditional counties Yorkshire and Derbyshire and the ecclesiastical provinces of York and Canterbury.

The earliest archaeological evidence for Sheffield in the Anglo-Saxon era is the 9th-century Sheffield Cross (discovered in the 19th century). It is the shaft of an Anglo-Saxon cross. It is Mercian in style, the most northerly example of this type. It is likely that the cross was previously sited at the location now occupied by Sheffield Cathedral, evidence for a long history of Christian use of the site.

In the 12th century, it is likely that Sheffield's parish church was constructed as a satellite of Worksop Priory by William de Lovetot, an Anglo-Norman baron of Huntingdonshire. This established the area of the parish of Sheffield, which would remain unchanged until the 19th century. De Lovetot also built a motte-and-bailey fortification at the confluence of the rivers Don and Sheaf.

The 12th century church, occupying the present-day site of Sheffield Cathedral, was destroyed in 1266 during the Second Barons' War in which Simon de Montfort led the barons against the royalist forces of Henry III. Sheffield's castle was also destroyed.

In 1270 Thomas de Furnival received a charter from King Henry III permitting the construction of a castle at Sheffield. Thomas died soon after the castle was completed and was buried in the castle. The castle was destroyed some 370 years later in the English Civil War, but its presence survives in the street-name Castlegate.

A Benedictine priory was founded at nearby Ecclesfield in c. 1273. Ecclesfield Priory's mother church was St Wandrille's Abbey in Normandy; the church at Ecclesfield had been a possession of St Wandrille's by 1142,. when this was confirmed by a papal bull of Pope Innocent II. The priory was disestablished in 1386.

There are two universities in Sheffield: the University of Sheffield, and the newer Sheffield Hallam University. Both are respected institutions, the latter perhaps more than the former. The University of Sheffield offers a wide range of vocational degrees whereas Sheffield Hallam offers the more traditional academic undergraduate options.

Sheffield is home to two football teams. Sheffield Wednesday (the Owls, who play at the Hillsborough Stadium) and Sheffield United (the Blades, who play at Bramall Lane) both, as of October 2024, compete in the Championship.

The six constituencies within Sheffield have consistently voted for the very liberal British parties. In the 2010 general election five were won by the British Labour Party and one by the Liberal Democrat's.^[5] The Liberal Democrat seat is currently held by their leader, Nick Clegg. His constituency, Sheffield Hallam, is extremely liberal thanks mainly to its make up being predominately students from the two universities in the city.

Rail

Sheffield has rail links to most other major UK cities, including London, Birmingham, Manchester and Leeds.

Tram

There is a light rail system, known as the Sheffield Supertram, in Sheffield. It is run by the Stagecoach Group.