South Yorkshire

South Yorkshire

South Yorkshire was created on 1 April 1974 as a result of the Local Government Act 1972. It is the southernmost county in the Yorkshire and the Humber region and had a population of 1.34 million in 2011. It consists of four metropolitan boroughs, Barnsley, Doncaster, Rotherham and Sheffield.

About South Yorkshire in brief

Summary South YorkshireSouth Yorkshire was created on 1 April 1974 as a result of the Local Government Act 1972. It is the southernmost county in the Yorkshire and the Humber region and had a population of 1.34 million in 2011. It consists of four metropolitan boroughs, Barnsley, Doncaster, Rotherham and Sheffield. The Sheffield Urban Area is the tenth most populous conurbation in the United Kingdom, and dominates the western half of South Yorkshire. South Yorkshire lies within the Sheffield City Region with Barnsly also being within the Leeds City Region. The county was on the frontier of the Roman Empire during the Roman period. The main mining industry was coal which was concentrated to the north and east of the county. There were also iron deposits which were mined in the area. The rivers running off the Pennines to the west of the country supported the steel industry that is concentrated in the city of Sheffield. Although Christian nonconformism was never as strong in South Yorkshire as in the mill towns of West Yorkshire, there are still many Methodist and Baptist churches in the region.

It’s the only county that counts as a full region in the Spiritualists’ National Union. In 1986, South Yorkshire County Council was abolished and the county is now effectively unitary authorities, although the metropolitan county continues to exist in law. It has a Lord Lieutenant and a High Sheriff, as a ceremonial county, as well as a Chief Constable and a Deputy Chief Constable. It was created from 32 local government districts of the West Riding of Yorkshire, with small areas from Derbyshire and Nottinghamshire. Although the modern county of Southorkshire was not created until 1974, the history of its constituent settlements and parts goes back centuries. The area was once dominated by the iron and coal mining industry, which is now concentrated in Sheffield. It also has a relatively high number of followers of spiritualism, and is one of the few areas in the UK to be a member of the National Spiritualists’ Union.