Some history:

The earliest settlement of Sheffield is the Iron Age fortification at Wincobank, approximately 2.5 miles to the north east of the city. This fortification is believed to be constructed by an ancient British tribe as a defense against the Romans. In 1150, a Norman baron by the name of William de Lovetot built a wooden castle where the Don and Sheaf rivers connect. The castle was replaced by a stone one in 1270, but that was destroyed 378 years later, after the civil war.

In 1516, the 4th Earl of Shewsbury built a country house a couple miles to the south-east of the castle, calling it Manor Lodge. The Turret House there was added later, housing Mary Queen of Scots after she fled to England to escape imprisonment in 1568. Not many old buildings are still standing in Sheffield, but the oldest is believed to be the Old Queen's Head on Pond Hill, which was first documented in 1582.

Sheffield has been a prime area for metal trades for hundreds of years because of it's central location to iron ore, oak, and fast flowing streams. Shepard's Wheel was used as far back as 1584 for sharpening knives and edge tools until 1930. The Cutlers Company of Hallamshire was opened in 1624. Scythes and other small tools were made at the Abbeydale Industrial Hamlet, which was built in the 18th century. The city also gave birth to Crucible steel and Sheffield Plate, leading to a huge boom in the late 1700/early 1800's.

Since the middle of the 19th century, Sheffield has grown to become the world's largest steel manufacturing center. Alloy steels were invented here, and the invention of stainless steel in 1913 caused a huge boost to the already immense cutlery industry. Sheffield was not largely affected by the 'green' movement for cleaner industries around the world in the 60's and 70's, which caused the closing of mills worldwide. The city, however, has the Avesta Sheffield's Shepcote Lane factory, with a 500 000 tonnes of high quality stainless steel per year capacity, making it the largest in Europe and North America.

Sheffield is also called "The National City of Sport" for a very good reason; soccer (or football, depending on where you live) was given birth to here. Other famous things given birth to from here include: The Full Monty, Def Leppard and child's rubber ball.

There is currently (at time of writing) a projected population of 531.4k people living in Sheffield.

The majority of this w/u is based off of http://www.sheffieldcity.co.uk

Sheffield is also the center (or centre?) of rock climbing in England because of its proximity to the crags of the Peak District and Yorkshire among many. It is home to the likes of Ben Moon and Jerry Moffatt.

It would be equivalent to Boulder, Colorado in the USA or Chamonix in France, except that, well, it's a big city with the post-Thacher, vacant remnants of the nation's steel industry.

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