Sheffield 1 Sheffield City of Sheffield — Borough & City — Coat of Arms of the City Council Nickname(s): "Steel City" Motto: "Deo Adjuvante Labor Proficit" "With God's help our labour is successful" Coordinates: 53°23′09″N 1°28′10″W Sovereign state United Kingdom Constituent country England Sheffield 2 Region Yorkshire and the Humber Ceremonial county South Yorkshire Admin HQ Sheffield City Centre Founded ~8th century Town charter 10 August 1297 City status 1893 Government - Type Metropolitan borough, City - Governing body Sheffield City Council - Lord Mayor Jane Bird - Council Leader Paul Scriven (LD) - MPs: Clive Betts (L) David Blunkett (L) Richard Caborn (L) Nick Clegg (LD) Meg Munn (L) Angela Smith (L) Area - Borough & City 142.1 sq mi (367.94 km2) Population (2007 est.) - Borough & City 530,300 (Ranked 3rd) - Density 3732.2/sq mi (1441/km2) - Urban 640,720 (Sheffield urban area) - Urban Density 10228.4/sq mi (3949.2/km2) - City Region 1,819,500 - County 1,292,900 Time zone Greenwich Mean Time (UTC+0) Postcode S Area code(s) 0114 ISO 3166-2 GB-SHF ONS code 00CG OS grid reference SK352878 NUTS 3 UKE32 Demonym Sheffielders [1] Website www.sheffield.gov.uk Sheffield (pronounced /ˈʃɛfiːld/ ( listen)) is a city and metropolitan borough of South Yorkshire, England. It is so named because of its origins in a field on the River Sheaf that runs through the city. Historically a part of the West Riding of Yorkshire, the city has grown from its largely industrial roots to encompass a wide economic base. The population of the City of Sheffield Sheffield 3 is estimated at 530,300 people (2007 est.),[2] and it is one of the eight largest English cities outside London, which form the English Core Cities Group. The wider Sheffield Urban Area, which extends beyond the city proper, has a population of 640,720. Sheffield obtained worldwide recognition during the 19th century for its production of steel. Many innovations in the industry were developed locally, including crucible and stainless steel. This fuelled an almost tenfold increase in the population during the Industrial Revolution. Sheffield received its city charter in 1893, and officially became the City of Sheffield. International competition in iron and steel eventually caused a decline in traditional local industries during the 1970s and 1980s, and at the same time the nearby coal mining industries collapsed. The beginning of the 21st century has show extensive redevelopment in some British cities, including Sheffield. The city's GVA (gross value added) increased by 60 per cent in recent years and, in 2006, it reached £8.7 billion. The overall economy experienced steady growth averaging around five per cent annually and, as such, has been growing at a higher rate than has been experienced in Yorkshire and the Humber in general. The City of Sheffield is located near the confluence of five rivers, with much of the city having been built on hillsides with views either into the city centre or out to the countryside. With an estimated total of over two million living trees, Sheffield has more trees per person than any other city in Europe: 61% of the city is greenspace. History The area that is now the City of Sheffield has been occupied since at least the late Upper Palaeolithic period, about 12,800 years ago.[3] 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.[4] 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 Portrait of Chaucer as a Canterbury Egbert of Wessex at the hamlet of Dore (now a suburb pilgrim in the Ellesmere manuscript of of Sheffield) in 829.[5] This event made Egbert the first The Canterbury Tales Saxon to claim to be king of all of England. 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,[6] 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,[7] 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.[8] Sheffield 4 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. 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.[4] 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.[9] The influx of people also led to Beauchief Abbey 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 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".[10] A recession in the 1930s was halted by only the increasing international 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.[11] 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.[4] Increased automation and competition from abroad resulted in the closure of many 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). The 1984/5 miners' strike affected the coal mining areas to the east and north east of Sheffield, though it is unlikely to have had a major impact upon Sheffield's economy. 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, WSG, which saw the construction of new sporting facilities such as the Sheffield Arena, Don Valley Stadium and the Ponds Forge complex.[4] The city is now changing rapidly as new projects aim to regenerate some of the more 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, the Winter Gardens were opened on 22 May Sheffield 5 2003, and a public space to link these two areas, the Millennium Square, was opened in May 2006. Further developments included the remodelling of Sheaf Square in front of the recently refurbished railway station. The new square contains The Cutting Edge a sculpture designed by Si Applied Ltd[12] made of Sheffield steel. Governance Sheffield is governed at the local level by Sheffield City Council. It consists of 84 councillors, elected to represent 28 wards, each with three councillors. It is currently controlled by the Liberal Democrats who gained the council from NOC at the English Local Election 2008—the Liberal Democrats, taking 45 seats to Labour's 36.[13] The Green Party took three council seats, whilst the Conservative party lost their single seat. Since the 2008 election the leader of the council has been Paul Scriven.[14] 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. The current (2009/10) Lord Mayor is Graham Oxley.[15] For much of its history the council was controlled by the Labour Party, and was noted for its leftist sympathies; during the 1980s administration under Sheffield Town Hall and the Peace David Blunkett, the area gained the epithet the Gardens "Socialist Republic of South Yorkshire".[16] However, the Liberal Democrats controlled the Council between 1999 and 2001 and took control again in the May 2008 local elections.[17] The majority of council-owned facilities are now operated by independent charitable trusts.