Sheffield (pop. 556,521) is an industrial city in north-central England. It lies in a scenic, hilly area where the River Don and River Sheaf meet. An important manufacturing city, Sheffield has long been a center for the production of high-grade steel, silver plate, and metal products. Its cutting tools and cutlery—silverware, teapots, and other table utensils—are internationally famous.
An Anglo-Saxon agricultural settlement probably stood on the site of what is now Sheffield as early as the A.D. 1000’s. Sheffield grew rapidly during the Industrial Revolution of the 1700’s and 1800’s, when it became England’s main center for steel production. Until the mid-1900’s, the city had large run-down areas, and German bombs had destroyed sections of it during World War II (1939-1945). But a major urban-renewal program, begun in the 1950’s, wiped out most of this urban blight. Today, Sheffield has attractive public housing, modern commercial and industrial areas, and pleasant parks and other landscaped sites.
