Overview
Sheffield is a city and metropolitan borough in South Yorkshire, England. It is so named because of its origins in a field on the River Sheaf that runs through the city.

The city has grown from its largely industrial roots to encompass a wide economic base. The population of the City of Sheffield is estimated at 520,700 people (2005), 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.

Historically part of the West Riding of Yorkshire, Sheffield obtained world-wide 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. 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, and at the same time the nearby national coal industry collapsed, affecting Sheffield's population.

In recent years, Sheffield has re-invented itself as a sporting and technology city.

History
The area that is now the City of Sheffield has been occupied since at least the last ice age,[2] 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.[3] 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. 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, 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,[6] 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.

Portrait of Chaucer as a Canterbury pilgrim in the Ellesmere manuscript of The Canterbury TalesIn 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. 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. 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 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".

Beauchief AbbeyA recession in the 1930s was only halted by 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.

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 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 unlikley 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.[3] These facilities have been created at considerable cost. Debt will be paid on them until 2025. The wisdom of the Council's decision to host the WSG in 1991 has also been questioned as more modern facilities created less than 40 miles away in Manchester for the Commonwealth games and those presently being created in London for the 2012 Olympics are likely to mean than any residual benefit to the city was short-lived. Most independent observers consider the WSG a costly flop.[citation needed] The city however inherited some world-class sport facilities unrivaled by many other cities earning it the title 'National City of Sports.'

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 2003, and a public space to link these two areas, the Millennium Square, was opened in May 2006. Further developments included the remodeling 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[10] made of Sheffield steel. A number of other projects grouped under the title Sheffield One will further boost the regeneration of most of the city centre, of which parts are undergoing radical change and development.

Culture
7.2% of Sheffield's working population are employed in the creative industries, well above the national average of 4%.[20] 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, ABC, 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 has a number of nightclubs - Gatecrasher One was one of the most popular nightclubs in the north of England until its destruction in a fire on 18 June 2007.

Sheffield has also seen the birth of Pulp, Def Leppard, Joe Cocker, Richard Hawley, The Longpigs, Arctic Monkeys and the free improvisers Derek Bailey and Tony Oxley. The highly influential post-punk group the Comsat Angels hail from Sheffield. 1998 Mercury Music Prize award winners Gomez are also connected to Sheffield, as some of the founding members went to Sheffield University. Along with many other popular and alternative musicians, the city is the base for a well developed and thriving unsigned music scene.

The Arctic Monkeys are particularly notable for their heavy use of a Sheffield accent in their songs. Hailing from the High Green suburb, their lyrics are often written in a Yorkshire dialect ('nowt, mardy) and contain references to local places (Rotherham, Hunter's Bar, Hillsborough, Shiregreen). They were one of several indie bands to emerge from the city as part of the New Yorkshire movement. Monkey Swallows the Universe are the latest Sheffield band to reach national fame.

A guilty secret maybe, but Sheffield has also quietly become an engine room for mainstream pop thanks to the work of Sheffield born and based producer Eliot Kennedy. The Spice Girls, Take That, 911, Dannii Minogue and S Club 7 are just a handful of the boy and girl bands who have frequently recorded in Sheffield in recent years. Kennedy has a home studio on the outskirts of the city, but also operates from the old Fon Studios in the city centre. [1]

Former National Centre for Popular MusicThe 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, the Studio Theatre at the Crucible Theatre, and The Grapes.

Sheffield has a number of local orchestras including the Hallam Sinfonia, Sheffield Symphony Orchestra, the Sheffield Chamber Orchestra, the Sheffield Philharmonic Orchestra and the City of Sheffield Youth Orchestra. There are also many choirs within Sheffield including Sheffield Cathedral Choir, The University of Sheffield Singers' Society, Hallam Choral Society, [Sheffield Bach Society]Sheffield Bach Society, [Sheffield Oratorio Chorus]Sheffield Oratorio Chorus and Sheffield Philharmonic Chorus. It is home to a strong brass band tradition, with bands associated with factories and villages.

Sheffield and its surrounding rural area have a strong tradition of local Christmas carols, including around 35 different 4-part settings for While Shepherds Watched Their Flocks. Many villages and areas of Sheffield have their own special carols, sometimes named after the location. There are also minor variations within carols between villages which must be observed by musicians travelling between venues. The carols' musical style dates from the Classical period. Keepers of the carolling tradition are often wary of newcomers to the city, and it can be hard for newcomers to discover the locations of the famous singing sessions.

Attractions
The Lyceum & Crucible TheatresSheffield 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.[49] There are four major art galleries, including the modern Millennium Galleries and the Site Gallery, which specialises in multimedia. The Sheffield Walk of Fame in the City Centre honours famous Sheffielders like the Hollywood version.

Sheffield Winter GardensThe city also has a number of other attractions such as the Sheffield Winter Gardens and the Peace Gardens. The Botanical Gardens recently underwent 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 Weston Park 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.[50]

The city has many parks such as Millhouses Park, Endcliffe Park and Graves Park.

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 Arts Tower, located on the campus of the University of SheffieldThe 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. Besides the story of The History Boys is set in Sheffield at Cutler's Grammar School. Sheffield's daily newspaper is the Sheffield Star, complemented by the weekly Sheffield Telegraph. Sheffield also has many free publications such as Sandman, Exposed, Clunge and Radio Coma. 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. The annual Lovebytes digital arts festival takes place in Sheffield across a variety of venues. A song by The Clash (who played their first ever gig in Sheffield at the Black Swan - now known as The Boardwalk), titled "This Is England" features the lyric: "This is England / This knife of Sheffield steel / This is England / This is how we feel." Sheffield hosted the Awards of the International Indian Film Academy in 2007 which was a big success and raised awareness of global warming by having an unconventional green carpet. Internationally recognised design agencies The Designers Republic and Universal Everything are based in Sheffield.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sheffield