Sheffield3is estimated at 530,300 people (2007 est.),
[2]
and it is one of the eight largest English citiesoutside 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 andstainless steel. This fuelled an almost tenfold increase in the population during theIndustrial Revolution. Sheffield received its city charter in 1893, and officially became theCity of Sheffield. International competition in iron and steel eventually caused a decline intraditional local industries during the 1970s and 1980s, and at the same time the nearbycoal 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 growthaveraging around five per cent annually and, as such, has been growing at a higher ratethan 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 cityhaving been built on hillsides with views either into the city centre or out to thecountryside. With an estimated total of over two million living trees, Sheffield has moretrees per person than any other city in Europe: 61% of the city is greenspace.
History
Portrait of Chaucer as a Canterburypilgrim in the Ellesmere manuscript of
The Canterbury Tales
The area that is now the City of Sheffield has beenoccupied since at least the late Upper Palaeolithicperiod, about 12,800 years ago.
[3]
but the settlementsthat grew to form Sheffield date from the second half of the 1st millennium, and are of Anglo-Saxon and Danishorigin.
[4]
In Anglo-Saxon times the Sheffield areastraddled the border between the kingdoms of Merciaand Northumbria. The
Anglo-Saxon Chronicle
reportsthat King Eanred of Northumbria submitted to KingEgbert of Wessex at the hamlet of Dore (now a suburbof Sheffield) in 829.
[5]
This event made Egbert the firstSaxon to claim to be king of all of England. After theNorman conquest, Sheffield Castle was built to protectthe 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]
andSheffield subsequently grew into a small market town. In the 14th century Sheffield wasalready noted for the production of knives, as mentioned in Geoffrey Chaucer's
TheCanterbury Tales
,
[7]
and by 1600 it had become the main centre of cutlery production inEngland, 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]
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