Sheffield

Sheffield, sometimes known as the “Steel City,” is a significant industrial, cosmopolitan, and cultural center known for its green open spaces, creative skills, galleries, sports facilities, and cutlery. Sheffield, England’s National City of Sport, is also home to Britain’s largest theatre complex outside of London and one of the country’s most popular retail malls. Sheffield is a fantastic location to study, and the city’s two institutions welcome over 10,000 international students each year. Unlike many other cities of its size, Sheffield boasts a huge quantity of public greenery, with trees outnumbering people by a factor of three. In addition to substantial urbanization, one-third of the city’s area is rural national park land: the Peak District is England’s oldest and most popular national park.

TOURIST INFORMATION

• Sheffield Tourist Information Centre, Surrey St, S1 (Located next to the Winter Gardens.),  +44 114 221-1900, e-mail: visitor@marketingsheffield.org. M–F 9:30AM–5PM, Sa 9:30AM–4PM.  

Sheffield, like the rest of the United Kingdom, has a temperate climate. The Pennines to the west of the city may be chilly, gloomy, and damp, but they also give shelter from the prevailing westerly winds, throwing a “rain shadow” over the region. Between 1971 and 2000, Sheffield had an average of 824.7 millimetres (32.47 in) of rain each year, with December receiving the most (91.9 millimetres (3.62 in) and July receiving the least (51.0 mm) (2.01 in). July was likewise the warmest month, with a high temperature of 20.8 °C (69.4 °F) on average. The average minimum temperature in January and February was 1.6 °C (34.9 °F), though the lowest temperatures recorded in these months can range between 10 and 15 °C (14 and 5 °F), though the temperature has never dropped below 9.2 °C (15.4 °F) since 1960, suggesting that urbanisation around the Weston Park site during the second half of the twentieth century may have prevented temperatures below 10 °C (14 °F) from occurring.

The lowest temperature recorded in recent years was 8.2 degrees Celsius (17.2 degrees Fahrenheit). (Note: According to the official Weston Park Weather Station figures, which can also be found at Sheffield Central Library, the temperature was 8.7 °C (16.3 °F) on 20 December, the lowest December temperature since 1981.)

Since records began in 1882, the coldest temperature ever recorded in Sheffield at Weston Park is 14.5 °C (5.9 °F), which occurred in February 1895. The city’s lowest daily maximum temperature since records started is 5.6 °C (21.9 °F), which was also recorded in February 1895.

On 20 December 2010, a daytime high of 4.4 °C (24.1 °F) was recorded in Weston Park.

(From Weston Park Weather Station data, which may also be found at Sheffield Central Library.)

Ground frost occurs on 67 days out of every 67 in the winter months of December to March.

Sheffield may be found at 53°23′N 1°28′W. It is located next to Rotherham, from which it is primarily isolated by the M1 motorway. Although Barnsley Metropolitan Borough shares a northern boundary with Sheffield, the town itself is a few miles distant. Sheffield shares its southern and western boundaries with Derbyshire; throughout the first part of the twentieth century, the city expanded its borders south into Derbyshire, annexing a number of villages, notably Totley, Dore, and the region now known as Mosborough Townships. The Peak District National Park and the Pennine hill range are directly west of the city, while the lowlands of the South Yorkshire Coalfield are directly east.

Sheffield is a city with a diversified geographical landscape. The city is nestled in a natural amphitheatre formed by many hills that constitute the eastern foothills of the Pennines, as well as the confluence of five rivers: the Don, Sheaf, Rivelin, Loxley, and Porter. As a result, most of the city is situated on slopes with views of the city center or the surrounding countryside. The city’s lowest point is just 29 metres (95 ft) above sea level at Blackburn Meadows, but several portions of the city are above 500 metres (1,640 ft); the highest point is 548 metres (1,798 ft) near Margery Hill. However, 79% of the city’s housing is located between 100 and 200 meters (330 and 660 feet) above sea level.

Sheffield has more trees per person than any other city in Europe, according to Sheffield City Council, and it is England’s greenest city, a claim that was supported when it won the 2005 Entente Florale competition. It features about 170 forests (encompassing 10.91 square miles or 28.3 square kilometers), 78 public parks (covering 7.07 square miles or 18.3 square kilometers), and 10 public gardens. When the 52.0 square miles (134.7 km2) of national park and the 4.20 square miles (10.9 km2) of water are included in, the city’s greenspace accounts for 61 percent of its total area. Despite this, over 64% of Sheffield households live more than 300 metres (328 yards) from their closest greenspace, however access is greater in less wealthy neighborhoods across the city. Since 2012, there have been disagreements between the city council and citizens over the destiny of the city’s 36,000 highway trees, with 2000 being cut as part of the £2 billion Streets Ahead road repair programme by October 2015.

Sheffield also features a diverse range of habitats, comparable to any other city in the UK: urban, parks and forest, agricultural and arable land, moors, meadows, and freshwater-based ecosystems. Six places in the city have been declared as sites of particular scientific significance.

When the previous county borough of Sheffield joined with Stocksbridge Urban District and two parishes from the Wortley Rural District in 1974 (with minor changes in 1994), the current city limits were established. This area encompasses a large portion of the countryside around the major metropolitan center. The Peak District National Park encompasses almost one-third of Sheffield. No other English city had sections of a national park inside its boundaries until the South Downs National Park, some of which sits within Brighton and Hove, was established in March 2010.

Following many years of recession, the Sheffield economy is seeing a dramatic resurgence. According to a 2004 Barclays Bank Financial Planning report, the Sheffield borough of Hallam was the top ranked location outside of London for total wealth in 2003, with over 12% of persons earning more than £60,000 per year. According to a Knight Frank study, Sheffield was the fastest-growing city outside of London in terms of office and residential space and rents during the second half of 2004. The current wave of redevelopments, such as the City Lofts Tower and St Paul’s Place, Velocity Living and the Moor redevelopment, the upcoming NRQ and the recently completed Winter Gardens, Peace Gardens, Millennium Galleries, and many projects under the Sheffield One redevelopment agency, demonstrate this. Sheffield’s economy expanded from £5.6 billion in 1997 (GVA) to £9.2 billion in 2007. (2007 GVA).

According to the “UK Cities Monitor 2008,” Sheffield is one of the top ten “best cities to locate a company today,” with the city ranking third and fourth for best office location and best new contact center site, respectively. According to the same survey, Sheffield ranks third in terms of “greenest reputation” and second in terms of cash incentives available.

Sheffield is well-known around the world for its metallurgy and steel production. Many breakthroughs in various sectors have occurred in Sheffield, for example, Benjamin Huntsman developed the crucible process in the 1740s at his Handsworth factory. The Bessemer converter, invented by Henry Bessemer in 1856, made this procedure obsolete. In the early 18th century, Thomas Boulsover created Sheffield Plate (silver-plated copper). Harry Brearley introduced stainless steel in 1912, and the work of F. B. Pickering and T. Gladman in the 1960s, 1970s, and 1980s was critical to the creation of current high-strength low-alloy steels. New advanced manufacturing technologies and procedures are being developed by Sheffield’s universities and other independent research organizations on the Advanced Manufacturing Park. The Advanced Manufacturing Research Centre (AMRC, a research collaboration between the Boeing Company and the University of Sheffield), Castings Technology International (CTI), The Welding Institute (TWI), and William Cook Group are all situated on the AMP.

Forgemasters, established in 1805, is the world’s last independent steelworks, dominating the north east of Sheffield along the Lower Don Valley. The company has a worldwide reputation for making the biggest and most complicated steel forgings and castings, and it is approved to create key nuclear components, including the Royal Navy’s Astute class submarines. The company also has the ability to pour Europe’s biggest single ingot (570 tonnes) and is actively extending its capabilities.

While iron and steel have long been the principal businesses of Sheffield, coal mining has also been a significant sector, especially in the outlying districts, and the Palace of Westminster in London was constructed using limestone from quarries in the adjacent town of Anston. Call centers, the City Council, colleges, and hospitals are among other places to work.

Sheffield is a significant shopping hub, with several High Street and department shops, as well as designer boutiques. The Moor district, Fargate, Orchard Square, and the Devonshire Quarter are the primary retail areas in the city center. John Lewis, Marks & Spencer, Atkinsons, and Debenhams are among the department shops in the city center. Castle Market, constructed over the ruins of the castle, was originally Sheffield’s largest market. This structure is scheduled to be dismantled. Sheffield Moor Market first opened its doors in 2013. Meadowhall shopping complex and retail park, Ecclesall Road, London Road, Hillsborough, Firth Park, and the Crystal Peaks shopping mall are all located outside of the city center. Meadowhall was rated 12th and Sheffield City Centre was ranked 19th in a 2010 assessment of expected spending at retail centers in the United Kingdom.

Sheffield has a District Energy system that uses home garbage to generate power by incinerating it and converting the energy from it. It also supplies hot water, which is transported through two networks over roughly 25 miles (40 km) of pipes under the city. Many buildings in the city rely on these networks for heat and hot water. Not only do they contain theaters, hospitals, stores, and businesses, but also institutions (Sheffield Hallam University and the University of Sheffield), as well as residential residences. From 225,000 tonnes of garbage, a waste facility generates 60 megawatts of thermal energy and up to 19 megawatts of electrical energy.

Sheffield City Area Enterprise Zone was established in 2012 to foster development in a variety of locations in Sheffield and around the region. Additional sites were added to the zone in March 2014.