County in Yorkshire, England
South Yorkshire
South Yorkshire gave the world stainless steel and Crucible snooker in Sheffield, plus the Flying Scotsman, built in Doncaster some 17 miles to the northeast.
Key information
- County
- Yorkshire
- Nation
- England
- Population
- About 1.4 million (2021 Census)
- Known for
- Steel and cutlery, coal mining, the Crucible and World Snooker Championship, Doncaster's St Leger
- What locals are called
- Sheffielders, Barnsley folk, Doncastrians and Rotherham folk; Yorkshire people also say "tykes"
- Famous people
- Jessica Ennis-Hill, Michael Parkinson, Sean Bean, Jarvis Cocker
- Football clubs
- Sheffield United, Sheffield Wednesday, Barnsley, Doncaster Rovers, Rotherham United
About South Yorkshire
The county that gave the world stainless steel
In 1913 a Sheffield metallurgist named Harry Brearley was trying to find a tougher steel for gun barrels. He noticed that one of his rejected experimental samples had refused to rust. He had stumbled on stainless steel, and a kitchen-drawer staple was born. That was the crowning moment of a long local craft. Benjamin Huntsman perfected crucible steel in the 1740s, Thomas Boulsover invented Sheffield plate in 1743, and Henry Bessemer set up a steelworks in the city in the 1850s. The Cutlers' Company had been regulating the knife trade since 1624. The rivers around Sheffield, fast-flowing and plentiful, drove the early mills. Coal and iron ore were close by. The result was a region that spent centuries making things other people used every day.
Coal, strikes and a cheeky republic
Beneath Barnsley, Rotherham and Doncaster lay the South Yorkshire coalfield, and pit villages grew up across the county. Mining shaped its humour, its brass bands and its fierce loyalty to neighbours. The 1984-85 miners' strike hit the area hard, and the clashes at the Orgreave coking plant near Rotherham in June 1984 became among the best-known images of the dispute. In the 1980s Sheffield's left-wing council was so outspoken that critics dubbed the area the "Socialist Republic of South Yorkshire", a label locals half-embraced. The pits have gone, but the old sites have been reborn. Magna in Rotherham, a science centre, sits inside a former steelworks, and its vast sheds are big enough to feel like a cathedral of industry.
A snooker table, a racecourse and the oldest football rules
Since 1977 the World Snooker Championship has been held at Sheffield's Crucible Theatre, a venue built for drama that became the sport's most famous stage. Players talk about the intimacy of the room, with the crowd almost on top of the table. In Doncaster the St Leger has been run since 1776, making it the oldest of Britain's five Classic horse races. Doncaster also has a railway pedigree. The Flying Scotsman was built at the town's Plant Works in 1923, and Mallard, which set the steam speed record of 126 mph in 1938, was built there too. Football runs deep. Sheffield clubs wrote some of the earliest rules in the 1850s and 60s, and the city has two big league clubs, Sheffield United and Sheffield Wednesday. Wednesday were named after the day of the week the original cricket club played. Barnsley, Rotherham United and Doncaster Rovers all have loyal followings of their own.
Chops, relish and butterscotch
South Yorkshire eating is hearty. The Barnsley chop is a huge double-sided lamb chop cut from across the saddle, a butcher's showpiece that locals have long been proud of. Yorkshire puddings arrive with Sunday roasts, and are often served first with gravy. Sheffield's secret ingredient is Henderson's Relish, a peppery brown sauce-like condiment sold since 1885. Nobody outside the company is supposed to know the recipe, and Sheffielders swear by it on everything from pies to chips. Doncaster has its own sweet claim. The town's butterscotch has been made since the early 19th century, and for generations it was sold in tins to visitors on race days.
Castles, grand houses and the Outdoor City
Conisbrough Castle near Doncaster has one of the finest Norman round keeps in England, and it features in Sir Walter Scott's Ivanhoe. Wentworth Woodhouse near Rotherham has the longest country house frontage in Europe, and its east front runs to about 600 feet. Sheffield sits on the edge of the Peak District and is built across seven hills, so green hillsides and valleys cut right through the city. It calls itself the Outdoor City, and climbers and walkers can be on gritstone edges within minutes of the centre. Culture is a strong suit. Sheffield produced Pulp, the Human League, Def Leppard and the Arctic Monkeys, and The Full Monty, set among laid-off steelworkers, was filmed in Sheffield in 1996 and released in 1997. Barnsley gave us Michael Parkinson and the cricket umpire Dickie Bird, and Sheffield's Jessica Ennis-Hill won heptathlon gold at the London 2012 Olympics.