The Development of Telecoms - Sheffield
"Made in Sheffield" is a legend known throughout the world for high quality steel products.
More than half the value of the steel produced in this country comes from Sheffield; steel for peace and steel for war, for high speed cutting tools and armour plate, for roller bearings and gun barrels. The first stainless steel, which revolutionized the cutlery trade was produced here in 1912.
The discovery about 250 years ago of the method of making "Old Sheffield Plate" has led to the present extensive manufacture of artistic silver ware and electro-plate for which Sheffield is so well-known. There is probably hardly a household in the country without its Sheffield electro-plate, as well as Sheffield cutlery and garden tools.
The city with its 513,000 inhabitants is the fifth largest in England and the largest in the North Eastern Region.
Sheffield is the centre of a telephone area serving a wide variety of needs. It includes not only the coal mining and dense industrial districts of South Yorkshire, but also scattered and mountainous rural parts.
The Pennine Chain runs southward almost to Sheffield itself and below the city, the area extends into the Derbyshire countryside and includes Chesterfield, the Peak National Park and the Hope Valley. Further to the east it reaches Worksop in North Nottinghamshire and so comes down towards Sherwood Forest and the Dukeries, its boundary running with that of the Nottingham telephone area.
In the Sheffield telephone area there are over 90,000 stations of which 95 per cent are automatic, the highest proportion in any provincial area. The annual revenue exceeds £1,500,000.
