South Yorkshire

Date: [unknown] [unknown]
Location: [unknown]
Surnames/tags: England Yorkshire

South Yorkshire

South Yorkshire was created as a metropolitan county on 1 April 1974 as a result of the Local Government Act 1972. It was formed primarily from the south-eastern area of the West Riding of Yorkshire with some parish attachments from Derbyshire. It consists of four metropolitan boroughs: Barnsley, Doncaster, Rotherham and Sheffield which were amalgamations of existing boroughs, urban districts and rural districts from the West Riding; these were created at the same time as the Metropolitan County and are now Unitary Authorities. The South Yorkshire County Council until its abolition in 1986 was based in Barnsley, the vestigial South Yorkshire Joint Services still remain there.

It is a constituent part of the Yorkshire and the Humber region of England. It has a population of 1.34 million (2011). Lying on the east side of the Pennines, South Yorkshire is landlocked, and borders Derbyshire (to the west and south-west), West Yorkshire (to the north-west), North Yorkshire (to the north), the East Riding of Yorkshire (to the north-east), Lincolnshire (to the east) and Nottinghamshire and Derbyshire (to the south and south-east). The Sheffield Urban Area is the ninth most populous conurbation in the UK, and dominates the western half of South Yorkshire with over half of the county's population living within it.^[1]

Map of South Yorkshire

Archive Resources in South Yorkshire

Researchers looking for the location of resources in South Yorkshire have a challenge. At the time that South Yorkshire county was created, those archive records pertaining to the four boroughs were transferred to the Sheffield Archives who acted for the whole county. Those records held by the old West Riding but which were not wholly concerned with places entirely within the new county of South Yorkshire were retained by the newly created West Yorkshire Archive Service (WYAS) and held at Wakefield.

Each of the four boroughs also created their own archives relating to materials created within their boroughs, each also have local studies libraries which may or may not be joined with the archive. Additionally there are museums in all four boroughs that hold materials potentially relevant to family historians and historians alike.

In the past two years (2014), there has been significant movement of records from Sheffield where these have been deemed wholly relevant to one of the other three boroughs. In addition to these, there have been developments at Wakefield with the WYAS who have recently taken over the administration and curation of the John Goodchild collection. This and the West Riding Registry of Deeds are held together with the WYAS collections relating to Wakefield at Wakefield.

Barnsley: https://www.barnsley.gov.uk/services/leisure-and-culture/records-and-archives/archives-and-local-studies

Doncaster: http://library.doncaster.gov.uk/web/arena/archives

Rotherham:http://www.rotherham.gov.uk/archives

Sheffield: https://www.sheffield.gov.uk/libraries/archives-and-local-studies

West Yorkshire Archive Service (including the John Goodchild Collection :http://www.archives.wyjs.org.uk/

Sources

1. ↑ Wikipedia

See Also:

• Yorkshire Research Resources