h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

Entry: South Yorkshire - A6838806
Author: JulesK - U649222

This is the South Yorkshire county entry from the challenge H2G2 project.

I think I've included a credit for everyone who contributed information on the thread - thanks, all

East Yorkshire does currently call itself the East Riding on its websites, btw.

Jules

the ruins of a cisterian monastery --> Cistercian

I'll just pass completely on the way that the East Riding (Riding = one third) makes up a quarter of Yorkshire - if I tried to understand I'd probably need a good few s first.

Yer population figures are well off. 37,500

Yep, yep, I already know - dunno what happened there - leave it with me!

OK, I think it's around 1,294,000 peeps. Does that sound better?

Or not enough begins to doubt self...goes to find a new source

Got it It's 1266338 as of 2001 census day.

Great to see this one in PR!

Nothing major to add, although I'll read through again in a minute (brain slow this morning, I need to read through everything twice before it registers!).

One thing it may be nice to mention is that Magna is actually on the site of the old Templeborough steelworks (my dad used to work there, but you don't have to mention that bit!). But as you've included a link to Magna that might not matter.

I'll post again once I've had some - sorry, I'm very slow today...

Two of the most famous steam engines were built in Doncaster the Flying Scotsman and the Mallard. The latter is still officially the fastest steam loco ever built.


Doncaster held the UKs first air display in 1909 at the racecourse and Two of the UKs ten squadrons of Vulcan bombers operated out of Finningly.

Doncaster is also a Russian nuclear target. I never thought that was a good thing when I was younger UNTILL we learnt about radiation posiening at school that is.

both, I have updated the Entry

>>Yorkshire is one of the biggest counties in England and South Yorkshire makes up one part of this, the others being North Yorkshire, West Yorkshire and The East Riding of Yorkshire.


No it isn't. You say that Yorkshire isn't a county anymore, so tence wise it isn't a county atm

The collective Yorkshire is the biggest county - with Lincolnshire second, is what I've put in my Lincolnshire entry

Hey Jules

You say that William Hague is from Rotherham? Well.. not really. He's from Wentworth.

Then under 'Barnsley' we have the Wentorth Castle Gardens, which are in Wentworth (obviously), which is where William Hague is from (the village, not the Castle). So is it Barnsley, or Rotherham?

I lived at Wentworth when I was a student there - when the 'big house' (castle) was Wentworth Woodhouse City of Sheffield Polytechnic campus (which was after its long and glorious history as a PE college). Anyhow .... Wentworth is officially Rotherham

Fabulous pub in Wentworth btw, called The Dragon I used to play Shove Ha'penny there And drink a lot of Theakstons

No mention of the People's Republic of South Yorkshire, and the strong socialist tradition?

Also some mention of the natural splendours - do some parts of the Peak District not fall into S Yorks or is it all in Derbyshire?

Certainly Sheffield has the strongest community of rock climbers in the UK, as well as two of the biggest/most famous climbing walls - The Foundry and The Edge.

sprout

Is the average cost of a house in South Yorkshire *really* £141k now? Blimey, I remember when decent houses in Rotherham could be bought for £35k - that's over 8 years ago, though.

Sprout, the entry says that a third of Sheffield is within the Peak District - certainly some of the boundaries are within South Yorkshire if not Sheffield.

There's also Sheffield Ski Village, which is an artificial ski slope... if that's still open .

Wasn't Meadowhall the biggest shopping centre of its kind in Europe when it opened in 1990? I remember it was built on land where there were previously steelworks.

the collective yorkshire isn't a county thoug, you cant have a county made out of counties. It used to be the biggest county,t hn they split it up

Ah yes, the ski slope - A848649


"Sod St.Moritz darling, we're going to Pitsmoor this year"

David Blunkett's a pretty famous local too.

I had a house in S Yorks in 1986 that I bought for UKP6,000 Ah, those were the days.

I agree with the point that the Labour administration of S Yorks Council of the mid 80s warrants a mention. It was the days of free buses around town in Sheffield and train fares of 15p from Barnsley to Sheffield And surprise, surprise, once those policies stopped, the numbers of cars on the roads shot up

And what about "Th'ole int road"? Is it still there?

T'ole int road! I forgot about that . I remember seeing that when I was a kid - there was an fish tank in there and everything... as well as the usual tramps and things

According to http://www.bbc.co.uk/southyorkshire/fun/virtual_tram/index.shtml it was filled in during 1995 to allow a tramway to be put over it. Not fair . T'ole int road was cool!

has any mention been made of the Supertram system, which was one of the first to be put back in, I think. The above link will probably cover some of the stuff about the tram, too.

Oddly, I think Rotherham was one of the few towns in the 1992 (?) election where the Monster Raving Loony Party actually got to keep their deposit .

I remember those bus fares, too - although as I was a child at the time, I remember it was only 2p . Then as soon as the buses got privatised, the prices shot up .

Parky's from Barnsley (Cudworth) - not Rotherham.

There's no such engine as the Flying Scotsman - that was the name of the train. (As such, several engines pulled it, quite a few of them built in Darlington).

Maybe the River Don Engine should get a mention. Are we really more proud of the Mallard?

Steelplants that disappeared to make way for things :
- Magna occupies the shell of Steel Peach and Tozer's Templeborough Melting Shop
- Meadowhall stands on the site of Hadfield's East Hecla Works