Sheffield

SHEFFIELD, a city, county and parliamentary borough in the West Riding of Yorkshire, England, 1581 m. N.N.W. of London, 424 m. S.E. of Manchester and 53 m. S.W. of York. It is served by the L.M.S. and L.N.E. railways and has con nection with all the principal towns in the North of England. Pop. (1931) 511,742. It is situated in the extreme south of the county at the foot of the Pennines and at the junction of the Don with its tributaries the Sheaf, the Porter, the Rivelin and the Loxley. These valleys provide easy routes N.W., W. and S.W. into the Pennines.

At the time of the Domesday Survey, Sheffield (Escafeld) was unimportant, forming with the manors of Grimesthorpe, Hallam and Attercliffe what is now the borough of Sheffield. Of these four manors Hallam was the most important, and gave its name to the shire. In 1296, a grant was made, to Hallam shire, of a market every Tuesday and an annual fair lasting three days, and in the following year the inhabitants were given a charter granting them the privileges as burgesses, of holding a court baron every three weeks, and of freedom from toll. By the end of the 14th century Sheffield had become more important than Hallam, partly no doubt on account of the castle built there in the 13th century. In the reign of Edward VI. certain property in the town which had been left to the burgesses in trust for charities was forfeited to the crown under the act for the suppression of colleges and chantries, but on their petition it was restored in 1554 by Queen Mary, who, at the same time, incorporated the town under the government of twelve capital burgesses. The town trust for the administration of property belonging to the town dates from the 14th century, and in 1681 the number and manner of election of the "town trustees" was definitely settled by a decree of the Court of Chancery. Addi tional powers were conferred on the trustees by an act passed in 1874. The town first returned members to parliament in 1832. In 1885 the representation was increased from two to five mem bers, and since 1918, seven members have been returned. The county borough was created in 1888, in 1893 the town became a county borough and the title of Lord Mayor was conferred on the chief magistrate in 1897.

Manufactures.

Sheffield owes its prosperity to the manu facture of steel. In the valleys of the Don and its tributaries iron smelting from local ore by means of wood was carried on, probably by the Romans at Templeborough, and certainly at the time of the Norman Conquest. Later, water power was used to drive bellows for the provision of artificial draught and for this the upland streams which converge on Sheffield were important. The town had become famed for its cutlery by the 14th century and was a strong rival of London ; local iron con tained too much phosphorus and the cutlery trade throve chiefly on imported iron from Sweden and Spain. The Cutlers Company was formed in 1624. Local hard stone provided grinding wheels and even to-day much grinding is done by individual workers. In the 18th century, iron smelting was on the verge of ruin, owing to the exhaustion of local timber supplies, and outcrop coal from the South Yorkshire coalfield gave the industry a new lease of life. Coke replaced charcoal, clay and gannister were found locally, and gradually, as steam power superseded water power, the steel industry concentrated in the lower parts of the valley and the town of Sheffield grew rapidly. In early times, cutlery was made of blister or bar steel, later shear steel was used, but in 174o, Benjamin Huntsman introduced the manufacture of cast steel and upon this achievement many subsequent steel mak ing discoveries have been based. It was with the aid of Sheffield capital that Henry Bessemer founded his pioneer works to de velop the manufacture of his invention, and so revolutionised the industry by cheapening its production. Large quantities of Besse mer steel are still made in Sheffield. Further improvements in steel were made in 1858 and in 1882 manganese steel was intro duced. Progress lagged until 190o when it seemed America would capture the market. A still better type of high speed steel was then produced and the position of Sheffield was maintained.