Things you didn't know about... Sheffield

Leaf it out—Sheffield is the city of the trunk call
With two million trees for about 500,000 people, Sheffield has more trees per person than any other city in Europe.

Know the lingo
In Sheffield they refer to bread rolls as "bread cakes".

Sheffield music rocks
Sheffield has produced four world-famous bands: The Human League (of Don't You Want Me fame), Pulp (Jarvis Cocker et al), Def Leppard (think big hair), and Arctic Monkeys. Plus Joe Cocker and a host of others. It's a big city, but that's a good strike rate by any standard.

Sheffield steel has been famous for hundreds of years
In The Canterbury Tales, Chaucer says of one his characters that no one dared touch him, because he kept a "Sheffield whittle" (a small knife) in his trousers.

Sheffield has the oldest football club in the world...
...and it's not Sheffield United or Sheffield Wednesday. It's called Sheffield FC and it dates back to 1857. It is recognised as the oldest by both the FA and by FIFA.

Sheffield is just like Rome
That is to say, it's built on seven hills. But unlike Rome, Sheffield has six rivers.

The popular music museum that wasn't
The National Centre for Popular Music opened in Sheffield in 1999. It cost £15 million and was supposed to attract 400,000 visitors a year. Unfortunately, it closed a year later, having failed to reach its target numbers, and is now the Students' Union of Sheffield Hallam University.

The daddy of them all
Everyone knows that Sheffield stands for engineering in general and steel in particular. One of the most awesome examples of what Sheffield could produce is the River Don Engine. Currently in the Kelham Island Museum, it's now the most powerful working steam engine left in Europe (12,000 horse power).

Sheffield's sons and daughters
The city has given us Helen Sharman (astronaut), Sean Bean (actor), Seb Coe (athlete and Olympic bid winner), Gordon Banks (World Cup-winning goalkeeper) and Michael Palin (Python and TV personality). Palin has said that people from Sheffield have a "dogged character... they're not like people anywhere else".