Sheffield

Map of the Sheffield Area

South Yorkshire is in the Yorkshire and Humber area of the UK and is a metropolitan county. It was formed in the 1974 as a result of the Local Government Act 1972 (source: Arnold-Baker, C., Local Government Act 1972, (1973)) and spans an area of 1552 square km (source: Vision of Britain - South Yorkshire area). The county is bordered by West Yorkshire, Derbyshire, North Yorkshire, East Riding of Yorkshire, Nottinghamshire and Lincolnshire. Although it has no county council it has retained its status of a ceremonial county and has a population of 1292900 (source: link) as of 2006. The county has a population density of 833 people per squared kilometre. South Yorkshire is split into four distinct local government districts: the Metropolitan Borough of Doncaster, the City of Sheffield, the Metropolitan Borough of Rotherham and the Metropolitan Borough of Barnsley (source: Vision of Britain - Components of South Yorkshire).

South Yorkshire settlements were based around the steel manufacturing and mining industries. Coal was the predominant mining industry and was mainly focused in the east and north of the county. The mining of iron was also concentrated in this area. Due to the proximity of these two elements and the rivers (flowing from the Pennines) that ran to the west of South Yorkshire which made this area ideal for the manufacture of steel. The City of Sheffield was well known for its Sheffield steel and the industry made the region prosperous. However, due to foreign competition and a reduction in profitability the steel industry has all but disappeared in the area.

Today Sheffield is known for its culture and tourism industry as well as its sports facilities. Other notable settlements of the county include Doncaster, a historic Roman town that is renowned for horse racing and railways, and Rotherham, an industrial town which is on the River Don and borders with Sheffield. Barnsley is also considered to be a principle town in the county and as it is the former administrative centre of the county before the county council was abolished. The council was abolished in 1986 and each of the districts is now responsible for all the major services in the county except for fire, police and civil defence; these services are supervised jointly.