title: Toyota Crown

text: The hardtop was offered in Royal Extra, Royal Saloon, Royal Saloon G, and sporty Royal Touring trim levels, while sedans were offered in Super Deluxe, Super Saloon, Super Saloon Extra and Royal Saloon trims.


title: Toyota Crown

text: Gasoline engines were offered solely as inline 6-cylinder units with 2.0, 2.5, or 3.0-liter displacements, while an LPG version of the 2.0 L engine was offered, as was a 2.4 L 4-cylinder turbodiesel. As with previous generations, all vehicles with the 2.0 L engine were offered in a slightly shorter and narrower vehicle so as to be in compliance with Japanese government dimension regulations. All-wheel drive was offered for the Royal Extra and Royal Saloon. The S150 Crown would be the last generation to be offered with a manual transmission.


title: Toyota Crown

text: In 1996, it won the Automotive Researchers' and Journalists' Conference Car of the Year award in Japan which it shared with the Crown Majesta.


title: Toyota Crown

text: Unlike most preceding generations, the S150 Crown was not exported in great numbers. It was mainly sent to China, Hong Kong, the Middle East, and Southeast Asian markets like the Philippines, Singapore and Vietnam, with limited exports to some Caribbean and Latin American countries. These Crowns, with sedan rather than hardtop bodywork, were fitted either with the 2.0-liter 1G-FE or the 3-liter 2JZ-GE unit depending on market conditions.


title: Toyota Crown

text: The 170-series, launched in September 1999, features shorter front overhang therefore maximizing interior and trunk space. There are two different 170-series 4-door Saloon; the Royal and Athlete. The Majesta, while sharing the same S170 chassis, is a separate vehicle which is larger and longer than the Crown and has distinctive front and rear styling. The four-door Hardtop was discontinued and no left-hand drive versions were produced, restricting exports to right-hand drive markets like Singapore. The 170-series Estate launched in December 1999 was the first new Crown Wagon after the 130-series and continued in production until March 2007. The engine installed is either the 2.0, 2.5 or 3.0 in-line-six. The Athlete V has 2.5-liter 1JZ-GTE turbo and was offered in both sedan and wagon versions, however the Athlete V wagon was only available until 2003, despite Crown Estate production continuing until 2007. The Royal Saloon was also offered with a 3.0-liter 2JZ-FSE mild hybrid from August 2001 to 2003, using a belted alternator starter system. Later non-hybrid models were offered with the direct-injection version of the 2JZ engine.


title: Toyota Crown

text: For the updated Athlete versions starting from August 2001, the tail lamps were changed from incandescent to LED lights and the front grille changed to a mesh design. Furthermore, the grey cloth interior was changed to black cloth, with black leather becoming an available option. Optional 17-inch wheels were also offered starting from 2001. An innovation was the electronically controlled (Toyota Electronic Modulated Suspension) air suspension combining nonlinear H-infinity control of damping force and roll-orientation control. The 170-series Crown replaced the aging 130-series in the Indonesian market.


title: Toyota Crown

text: A total of 10,545 Athlete V sedans were manufactured, with a further 5,012 Athlete V Estates manufactured.


title: Toyota Crown

text: The S180 model of the Crown, released in late 2003, was based on the Zero Crown concept car. The engine was changed to a V6 for the new Royal and Athlete models, while the Crown Majesta used the V8 only, now in 4.3-liter form with 4WD optional. The new engines gave more performance while also giving better fuel economy. Left-hand drive Crowns became available for the first time since 2001 with this generation, although they were produced exclusively in China by Tianjin FAW Toyota Motor for sale in the domestic market. Radar Pre-Collision System added a single digital camera to improve the accuracy of collision forecast and warning and control levels. In television commercials in Japan a song was written by composer John Harle titled "How should I my true love know?". G-BOOK was introduced in May 2006.


title: Toyota Crown

text: Compared with the previous model, this model was increased by in the wheelbase and in body width. These changes gave it the largest interior size among its contemporaries, more than the Mercedes-Benz S-Class or BMW 7 Series. The slightly shorter and narrower versions with a 2.0 L engine are no longer offered as a Crown, with the Crown Comfort having assumed the market position in Japan for vehicles that complied with Japanese government dimension regulations.


title: Toyota Crown

text: The S170 series Crown Estate was continued alongside the S180 sedans, and was replaced by the luxury-oriented Toyota Alphard for load carrying duties and multiple passengers. It continued to use the older inline six-cylinder engines.


title: Toyota Crown

text: This generation of the Crown is available in 4 different trim levels: the Crown Royal series which is a more comfortable and luxurious car; the Crown Athlete series which takes the luxurious aspect of the Royal series but has more aggressive styling and sporty features; the Crown Majesta series with different styling and more luxurious features than the Royal series; and the Crown Hybrid series which is a trim level designated for the Hybrid Synergy Drive V6 drivetrain. The larger 4.6 L "1UR-FSE" V8 engine incurs a higher road tax liability.


title: Toyota Crown

text: The Crown is set to rival the European BMW 5 Series, Mercedes-Benz E-Class, Audi A6, Jaguar XF, the American Cadillac CTS, and the Japanese Acura RLX, Honda Legend, Infiniti M and Nissan Fuga. This is the longest and widest Crown to be built until the arrival of the fourteenth generation (S210 model).


title: Toyota Crown

text: The Crown Athlete has been tested to do 0–100 km/h in under 6 seconds, while the Crown Hybrid has been estimated to take 5.4 seconds due to the additional power of the hybrid motor. The mechanically similar Lexus GS 450H Hybrid (GWS191) outputs .


title: Toyota Crown

text: The fourteenth generation Crown was launched on 25 December 2012 with new styling, with the Royal series front styling theme paying homage to the fifth generation MS105 series. Most aspects of the car can be controlled by Toyota Multi-Operation Touch panel.


title: Toyota Crown

text: The S210 Crown was launched in China in March 2015. Pricing currently ranges between 250,800 and 332,800 yuan (US$36,830–48,860) with four trim levels known as: Pioneer, Fashion, Sports and Elite. The Crown currently uses the 2-liter "8AR-FTS" turbocharged four-cylinder engine paired to an 8-speed automatic gearbox. Compared to its Japanese counterpart, the Crown S210 in China is 35 millimetres longer in length, 5 millimetres wider, 15 millimetres shorter in height, 65 millimetres longer in wheelbase and is 165 to 305 kilograms lighter in kerb weight. The front end of the Chinese variant has a razor blade grille just like its Japanese counterpart and has thinner headlights and tail lights for a sleeker design.


title: Toyota Crown

text: In Japan, the S210 series Crown was discontinued in June 2018, where it was replaced by the S220 model. It also ended production in May 2020 for the Chinese market, where the XX50 series Avalon replaced it.


title: Toyota Crown

text: A special edition version of the S210 Crown was produced in association with Japanese presenter/producer Terry Ito. It featured a bright pink exterior and various pink interior details. It was offered to customers for the month of September 2013. Toyota stated that they received 650 orders for the car, of which were mostly from male customers. Prices for used examples remain high because of the uniqueness and rarity of the trim.


title: Toyota Crown

text: The fifteenth-generation Crown was unveiled as a concept at the 45th Tokyo Motor Show in October 2017 and went on sale on 26 June 2018. The vehicle is built on a narrow version of the same TNGA-L platform that is used by other Lexus and luxury Toyota sedans. Three engine choices are offered so as to provide buyers advantages in savings with regards to Japan's annual road tax obligation, and standard equipment content is increased with each trim package matched to the engine size.


title: Toyota Crown

text: Trim levels for the Japanese market Crown are B, S, G, G Executive, RS-B, RS, and RS Advance. All trim levels are offered with either rear wheel drive or full-time all-wheel drive. The S220 Crown carried over the 2.0-liter 8SR-FTS turbocharged four-cylinder gasoline engine from the previous model, introduced the 2.5 liter A25A-FXS paired with the Hybrid Synergy Drive system, as well as the 3.5-liter 8GR-FXS V6 paired with the Multi Stage Hybrid system from the Lexus LC 500h and LS 500h. The 2.0 L engine is only available in the rear wheel drive RS and RS Advance. All trim levels, except the rear wheel drive G Executive, can be purchased with the 2.5 L Hybrid. The 3.5 L Hybrid is only installed in the rear wheel drive RS Advance and G Executive. The only engine for the 4WD models is 2.5 L Hybrid. The 2.5 L Hybrid G Executive is the only version exported to Indonesia.


title: Toyota Crown

text: In October 2019, the S220 Crown was selected by the government of Indonesia to serve as an official vehicle for cabinet ministers, replacing the older Crown Royal Saloon which had been in use since 2009. However, unlike some preceding generations of the Crown in Indonesia, the S220 is imported in small numbers and unavailable for consumer purchase.


title: Toyota Crown

text: In 2020, a facelift of the S220 Crown was planned but rejected by president Akio Toyoda and scrapped in favour of developing a new generation. However, in November 2020, the S220 received a minor update which brought a redesigned centre control stack and centre console to the interior, featuring a single 12.3-inch touchscreen and more intuitive physical climate controls in place of the previous dual-screen design.


title: Toyota Crown

text: The fifteenth-generation Crown is one of the first Toyota models to be equipped with a DCM (Data Communication Module) system which then links with a Vehicle Control Network. By using this hardware, Toyota was able to provide various connected services to T-Connect subscribers through its proprietary Mobility Service Platform (MSPF), an information infrastructure developed by the company for Connected Cars. From then, Toyota intended to equip most new passenger vehicles in its domestic market with DCM.


title: Toyota Crown

text: On August 1, 2018, Toyota Motor Corporation (Toyota), with Toyota City, started Japan's first verification testing for road maintenance inspections using vehicle data obtained from connected cars. The verification test enabled assessment of whether the degree of road deterioration index values computed from the car's behavior data and actual road conditions are consistent, and validate these findings on more typical regional roads. Toyota also aimed to further advance its technology toward supporting administrative services that implement road maintenance and inspection work in Toyota City more accurately and appropriately.


title: Toyota Crown

text: The fifteenth generation Crown is equipped with Toyota Safety Sense 2.0 just like most Toyota models for 2018. Some added or improved features include:


title: Toyota Crown

text: The sixteenth generation of the Crown family was unveiled on 15 July 2022. Considered as a "reboot" to the Crown nameplate, four body styles were introduced, which are Crossover, Sport (previewed by the Crossover EV concept car in December 2021), Sedan and Estate. The latter three body styles will be released in 2023. Citing the Crown as a "symbol of Japan's affluence and Japanese pride", Toyota CEO Akio Toyoda announced that the Crown range of vehicles will be available in global markets for the first time in history, with availability in about 40 countries and regions with an expected annual sales volume of around 200,000 units.


title: Toyota Crown

text: The Crossover-type Crown was released on 15 July 2022 as the first body style of the sixteenth-generation Crown family to be launched. It will be sold in North America after 50 years of hiatus of the Crown nameplate in the region since 1972.


title: Toyota Crown

text: The design of the Crossover-type Crown was described as a combination between a sedan and an SUV, with a sloping roof and a conventional sedan trunk opening. It is based on the front-wheel drive-based GA-K platform while offering "E-Four"/"E-Four Advanced" electric four-wheel drive system as standard. All models come equipped with acoustic glass and extensive sound deadening to improve noise, vibration, and harshness, emphasizing Crown's premium positioning.


title: Toyota Crown

text: Two standard gasoline hybrid powertrain options are offered, which is a 2.5-liter "A25A-FXS" engine producing a total of system output with "E-Four" four-wheel drive system and eCVT, and a more powerful turbocharged 2.4-liter "T24A-FTS" engine (marketed as "Dual Boost Hybrid System" in Japan and "Hybrid Max" in North America) producing a total of system output and of torque with "E-Four Advanced" four-wheel drive system and a 6-speed "Direct Shift-6AT" automatic transmission with rear "eAxle".


title: Toyota Crown

text: Mass production of the Crown Crossover was started at the Tsutsumi plant from around late August 2022, and at the Motomachi plant from mid-September 2022.


title: Toyota Crown

text: In Japan, grade levels offered for the are the X, G, and RS, with the latter equipped with the "T24A-FTS" engine. Targeted monthly sales in Japan is set at 3,200 units. It went on sale in September 2022.


title: Toyota Crown

text: The North American market Crown went on sale in October 2022 as a 2023 model year vehicle, available only in the Crossover body style. Marketed simply as "Crown", grade levels available in the US and Canada are XLE, Limited, and Platinum. The latter is equipped with the "T24A-FTS" engine and a standard Adaptive Variable Suspension. The North American market Crown will not wear the Crown emblem at the front and the steering wheel, and will instead wear Toyota's corporate emblem. It is also not equipped with the full-width daytime running light bar available in the Japanese market model, which is replaced with a chrome piece. The Crown replaced the Avalon as Toyota's flagship sedan in the North American market.


title: Toyota Crown

text: The Crown Sport was previewed as a mock-up model in July 2022 and is scheduled for 2023 release. Previously, the same model was showcased as a battery electric vehicle concept called the "Crossover EV" in December 2021.


title: Toyota Crown

text: The Crown Sedan is a four-door sedan that was previewed as a mock-up model in July 2022 and is scheduled for 2023 release. Compared to the fifteenth generation, the sixteenth-generation sedan will be longer in length and longer in wheelbase.


title: Toyota Crown

text: To replace the commercial variant of the S130 Crown sedan, which was popular with taxicab operators, Toyota released a long-wheelbase version of the Comfort fleet sedan under the Crown Comfort nameplate. An upscale variant of the Crown Comfort with better appointments was sold exclusively in Japan as the Crown Sedan. While these models bore the Crown nameplate, they were based on the outgoing X80 series Mark II. The Crown Comfort was popular among taxicab operators in Japan, Hong Kong and Singapore, but is gradually falling out of favour as better-appointed vehicles become available at competitive cost.


title: Toyota Crown

text: The Crown Comfort was removed from Toyota's Japanese website on 25 May 2017, with production of existing orders ceasing in January 2018. It was replaced by the JPN Taxi which was launched at the 45th Tokyo Motor Show in October 2017.


title: Toyota Crown

text: In April 2021, Toyota used the "Crown" nameplate as a sub-brand for high-end models sold by FAW Toyota in China, shortly after the S210 Crown sedan was discontinued in mid-2020. The first models introduced were the Crown Kluger () SUV (rebadged Highlander) and Crown Vellfire () minivan (renamed from Vellfire). Both models feature the Crown logo replacing the front Toyota logo, and in other places such as the hubcaps, instrument cluster and steering wheel (Crown Kluger only).


title: Toyota Crown

text: In November 2015, Wuhan Municipal Sanitation Machinery Co., Ltd. sued Toyota and a Wuhan-based automobile dealer for trademark infringement in China based on the similarity of the Crown logo to Wuhan Municipal Sanitation Machinery's China Trademark Registration No. 217925. Toyota had requested cancellation of this trademark registration in December 2014, but its request was denied by the China Trademark Office (CTMO).


title: Rings of Power

text: The Rings of Power are magical artefacts in J. R. R. Tolkien's legendarium, most prominently in his high fantasy novel "The Lord of the Rings". The One Ring first appeared as a plot device, a magic ring in Tolkien's children's fantasy novel, "The Hobbit"; Tolkien later gave it a backstory and much greater power. He added nineteen other Great Rings, also conferring invisibility, that it could control, including the Three Rings of the Elves, Seven Rings for the Dwarves, and Nine for Men. He stated that there were in addition many lesser rings with minor powers. A key story element in "The Lord of the Rings" is the addictive power of the One Ring, made secretly by the Dark Lord Sauron, while the Nine Rings enslave their bearers as the Nazgûl (Ringwraiths), Sauron's most deadly servants.


title: Rings of Power

text: Proposed sources of inspiration for the Rings of Power range from Germanic legend with the ring Andvaranaut and eventually Wagner's "Der Ring des Nibelungen", to fairy tales such as Snow White, which features both a magic ring and seven dwarfs. One experience which may have been pivotal was Tolkien's professional work on a Latin inscription at the temple of Nodens; he was a god-hero linked to the Irish hero "Nuada Airgetlám", whose epithet is "Silver-Hand", or in Elvish "Celebrimbor", the name of the Elven-smith who made the Rings of Power. The inscription contained a curse upon a ring, and the site was called Dwarf's Hill.


title: Rings of Power

text: The Rings of Power have been described as symbolising the way that power conflicts with moral behaviour; Tolkien explores the way that different characters, from the humble gardener Sam Gamgee to the powerful Elf ruler Galadriel, the proud warrior Boromir to the Ring-addicted monster Gollum, interact with the One Ring. Tolkien stated that "The Lord of the Rings" was an examination of "placing power in external objects".


title: Rings of Power

text: The Rings of Power were forged by the Elven-smiths of the Noldorin settlement of Eregion. Best-known were the twenty Great Rings which conferred powers including invisibility, but many lesser rings with minor powers were also created at that time. The smiths were led by Celebrimbor, the grandson of Fëanor, the greatest craftsman of the Noldor, working with Dwarves from Khazad-dûm (Moria) led by his friend Narvi. Sauron, powerful and ambitious, but humiliated by the fall of his evil master Morgoth at the end of the First Age, had evaded the summons of the godlike Valar to surrender and face judgment; he chose to remain in Middle-earth and seek dominion over its people. In the Second Age, he arrived disguised as a handsome emissary of the Valar named Annatar, the Lord of Gifts, offering the knowledge to transform Middle-earth with the light of Valinor, the home of the Valar. He was shunned by the Elven leaders Gil-galad and Elrond in Lindon, but managed to persuade the Noldorin Elves of Eregion. With Sauron's help, they learnt to forge Rings of Power, creating the Seven and the Nine. While Celebrimbor created a set of Three on his own, Sauron left for Mordor and forged the One Ring, a master ring to control all the others, in the fires of Mount Doom.


title: Rings of Power

text: When the One Ring was made using the Black Speech, the Elves immediately became aware of Sauron's true motive to control the other Rings. When Sauron set the completed One Ring upon his finger, the Elves quickly hid their rings. Celebrimbor entrusted one of the Three to Galadriel and sent the other two to Gil-galad and Círdan. In an attempt to seize all the Rings of Power for himself, Sauron waged an assault upon the Elves. He destroyed Eregion and captured the Nine. Under torture, Celebrimbor revealed where the Seven were, but refused to reveal the Three.


title: Rings of Power

text: Toward the end of the Second Age, the Númenóreans took Sauron prisoner. Sauron however managed to corrupt the Men of Númenor, leading to their civilisation's eventual downfall. The exiled Númenóreans who survived, led by Elendil and his sons Isildur and Anárion, established the realms of Arnor and Gondor. Together with the Elves of Lindon, they formed the last alliance against Sauron and emerged victorious. Isildur cut the One Ring from Sauron's hand and kept it, refusing to destroy it; he was later killed in an ambush, and the Ring was lost for centuries. During this time, the Elves were able to use the Three Rings, while the Nine given to the leaders of Men corrupted their wearers and turned them into the Nazgûl. The Seven given to the Dwarves failed to subject them directly to Sauron's will but ignited a sense of avarice within them. Over the years, Sauron sought to recapture the Rings, primarily the One, but was only successful in recovering the Nine and three of the Seven. During the Third Age, the One Ring was discovered by Bilbo Baggins (in "The Hobbit") and a Fellowship was formed to destroy it, led by Bilbo's heir Frodo. Following the successful destruction of the One Ring and the fall of Sauron, the power of the rings faded. While the Nine were destroyed, the Three were rendered powerless; their bearers left Middle-earth for Valinor at the end of the Third Age, inaugurating the Dominion of Men.


title: Rings of Power

text: As observed by Saruman, each Ring of Power was adorned with its "proper gem", except for the One Ring, which was unadorned.


title: Rings of Power

text: Unlike the other Rings of Power, the One was created as an unadorned gold band, though it bore Sauron's incantation, the Rhyme of the Rings, in the Black Speech; it became visible only when heated, whether by fire or by Sauron's hand. As the other Rings were made under the influence of Sauron, the power of all the Rings depended on the One Ring's survival. To make the One Ring, Sauron had to put almost all his power into it—when worn, it enhanced his power; unworn, it remained aligned to him unless another seized it and took control of it. A prospective possessor could, if sufficiently strong, overthrow Sauron and usurp his place; but they would become as evil as him. As the One was made in the fires of Mount Doom, it could only be unmade there. Sauron, being evil, never imagined that anyone might try to destroy the One Ring, as he imagined that anyone bearing it would be corrupted by it.


title: Rings of Power

text: Named for the three elements of fire, water, and air, the Three were the last to be made before Sauron's solo creation of the One. While Celebrimbor forged the Three Rings alone in Eregion, they were moulded by Sauron's craft and were bound to the One. Only after Sauron's defeat, when the One Ring was cut from his finger at the end of the Second Age, did the Elves begin to actively use the Three to ward off the decay brought by time. They are:


title: Rings of Power

text: Sauron recovered the Seven Rings from information provided by Celebrimbor, and gave them to the leaders of the seven kindreds of the Dwarves: Durin's Folk (Longbeards), Firebeards, Broadbeams, Ironfists, Stiffbeards, Blacklocks, and Stonefoots, though a tradition of Durin's Folk claimed that Durin received his ring from the Elven-smiths. Over the years, Sauron was able to recover only three of the Seven rings from the Dwarves. The last of the three was seized from Thráin II during his captivity in Dol Guldur. Gandalf recounts to Frodo that the remaining four were consumed by dragons. Before the outbreak of the War of the Ring, an envoy from Sauron attempted to bribe Dain II Ironfoot of the Lonely Mountain with the three surviving rings and the lost realm of Moria in exchange for information leading to the recovery of the One Ring, but Dain refused.


title: Rings of Power

text: Sauron gave Nine of the Rings of Power to leaders of Men, who became "mighty in their day, kings, sorcerers, and warriors of old". They gained unending lifespans, and the ability to see things in worlds invisible to mortal Men. One by one, the Men fell to the power of the One Ring; by the end of the Second Age, all nine had become invisible ring-wraiths – the Nazgûl, Sauron's most terrible servants. In particular, they helped him search for the One Ring, to which they were powerfully attracted.


title: Rings of Power

text: The Rings of Power were made using the craft taught by Sauron to give their wearers "wealth and dominion over others". Each Ring enhances the "natural power" of its possessor, thus approaching its "magical aspect", which can be "easily corruptible to evil and lust of domination". Gandalf explains that a Ring of Power is self-serving and can "look after itself": the One Ring, in particular, can "slip off treacherously" to return to its master Sauron, betraying its bearer when an opportunity arrives. As the Ruling Ring, the One enables a sufficiently powerful bearer to perceive what is done using the lesser rings and to govern the thoughts of their bearers. To use the One Ring to its full extent, the bearer needs to be strong and train their will to the domination of others.


title: Rings of Power

text: A mortal Man or Hobbit who takes possession of a Ring of Power can manifest its power, becoming invisible and able to see things that are normally invisible, as the bearer is partly transported into the spirit world. However, they also "fade"; the Rings unnaturally extend their life-spans, but gradually transform them into permanently invisible wraiths. The Rings affect other beings differently. The Seven are used by their Dwarven bearers to increase their treasure hoards, but they do not gain invisibility, and Sauron was unable to bend the Dwarves to his will, instead only amplifying their greed and anger. Tom Bombadil, the only person unaffected by the power of the One Ring, could both see its wearer and remained visible when he wore it.


title: Rings of Power

text: Unlike the other Rings, the main purpose of the Three was to "heal and preserve", as when Galadriel used Nenya to preserve her realm of Lothlórien over long periods. The Three do not make their wearers invisible as they were made without Sauron's direct involvement, but can render themselves invisible to all but another Ring-bearer. The Three had other powers: Narya could rekindle hearts with its fire and inspire others to resist tyranny, domination, and despair; Nenya had a secret power in its water that protected from evil; while Vilya healed and preserved wisdom in its element of air.


title: Rings of Power

text: The One Ring first appeared in Tolkien's children's fantasy "The Hobbit" in 1937 as a plot device, a mysterious magic ring which the titular character had stumbled upon, but its origin was left unexplained. Following the novel's success, Tolkien was persuaded by his publishers Allen & Unwin to write a sequel. Intending to give Bilbo another adventure, he instead devised a background story around the Ring with its power of invisibility, forming a framework for the new work. He tied the Ring to mythical elements from the unfinished manuscripts for "The Silmarillion" to create an impression of depth in "The Lord of the Rings". Gollum's characterisation in "The Hobbit" was revised for the second edition to bring it into line with his portrayal in "The Lord of the Rings" as a being addicted to the One Ring.


title: Rings of Power

text: Tolkien's conception of Ring-lore was closely linked to his development of the One Ring. He initially made Sauron instrumental in forging the Rings. He then briefly considered having Fëanor, creator of the Silmarils, forge the Rings of Power, under the influence of Morgoth, the first Dark Lord. He settled on Celebrimbor, a descendant of Fëanor, as the Ring's principal maker, under the tutelage of Sauron, Morgoth's chief servant. While writing the lore behind the One Ring, Tolkien struggled with giving the Elven rings a "special status" – somehow linked to the One, and thus endangered by it, but also "unsullied", having no direct connection with Sauron. By the time he was writing the chapter "The Mirror of Galadriel", Tolkien had decided that the Seven and the Nine were made by the Elven-smiths of Eregion under Sauron's guidance and that the Three were made by Celebrimbor alone. He considered setting the Three free from the One when it was destroyed but dropped the idea. Tolkien's posthumous works, including "The Silmarillion", "Unfinished Tales" and "The History of Middle-earth" offer further glimpses of the creation of the Rings.


title: Rings of Power

text: The Tolkien scholar Tom Shippey thought that Tolkien's work on a Latin inscription at a Roman temple at Lydney Park a "pivotal" influence, combining as it did a god-hero, a ring, dwarves, and a silver hand. The god-hero was Nodens, whom Tolkien traced to the Irish hero "Nuada Airgetlám", "Nuada of the Silver-Hand", and the inscription carried a curse on a stolen ring. "Silver-Hand" is the English translation of "Celebrimbor", the Elven-smith who made the Rings of Power, in association with the Dwarven-smith Narvi. The temple was at a place called Dwarf's Hill.


title: Rings of Power

text: Magical rings occur in classical legend, in the form of Plato's Ring of Gyges which grants the power of invisibility to its wearer, though there is no suggestion that this influenced Tolkien. He was certainly influenced, however, by the Germanic legend: Andvaranaut is a magical ring that can give its wielder wealth, while Draupnir is a self-multiplying ring that holds dominion over all the rings it creates. Richard Wagner's opera series "Der Ring des Nibelungen" adapted Norse mythology to provide a magical but cursed golden ring. Tolkien denied any connection, but scholars agreed that Wagner's "Ring" powerfully influenced Tolkien. The scholar of religion Stefan Arvidsson writes that Tolkien's ring differs from Wagner's in being concerned with power for its own sake and that he turned one ring into many, an echo of the self-multiplying ring.


title: Rings of Power

text: "Magic rings are a frequent motif in fairy tales; they confer powers such as invisibility or flight; they can summon wish-granting djinns and dwarves", writes the Tolkien and feminist scholar Melanie Rawls "identify the enchanted princess, hold the tiny golden key to the secret room, give one the power to transform oneself into any form — animal, vegetable, or mineral: duck, lake, rock or tree on a plain, and so escape the ogre." As Tolkien was well acquainted with fairy tales like The Brothers Grimm's Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, which involves a magic ring, Jeanette White from "Comic Book Resources" suggested that his choice "to gift seven rings of power to the Dwarf Lords of the seven kingdoms is probably no accident".


title: Rings of Power

text: According to the scholars of philosophy Gregory Bassham and Eric Bronson, the Rings of Power can be seen as a modern representation of the relationship between power and morality, remarking that it portrays an idea that "absolute power is in conflict with behaviour that respects the wishes and needs of others". They also observed that several of Tolkien's characters have responded in different ways when faced with the possibility of possessing the One Ring—characters such as Samwise Gamgee and Galadriel have rejected it; Boromir and Gollum were seduced by its power; and Frodo Baggins, though in limited use, ultimately succumbs to it; while Tom Bombadil can transcend from its power entirely. They also noted that for Tolkien, the crucial moment of each character in the story is the moment in which they are tempted to use a Ring, a choice which will determine their fate. The science fiction author Isaac Asimov described the Rings of Power as symbols of industrial technology. While Tolkien denied that "The Lord of the Rings" was an allegory, he stated that it could be applied to situations and described it as an examination of "placing power in external objects".


title: Rings of Power

text: In a 2019 article published by Kaspersky Lab, Nikolay Pankov analysed Sauron's efforts to dominate or ensnare the bearers of the Rings of Power from a modern perspective, with reference to the context of Tolkien's enthusiasm in the field of cryptanalysis as well as his participation in a language course run by the Government Code and Cypher School during the late 1930s. Pankov used analogies to real-world information security terms such as supply chain attacks, phishing techniques, and botnet software to describe the struggles between Sauron and the various Ring-bearers who are representatives of the Free Peoples of Middle-earth.


title: Rings of Power

text: Gwyneth Hood, writing in "Mythlore", explores two Catholic elements in the story of the Three Rings: the angelic and sacrificial aspects of the elves in the War of the Ring. To the hobbits of the Fellowship of the Ring, the elven Ring-bearers appear as angelic messengers, offering wise counsel. To save Middle-earth, they have to accept the plan to destroy the One Ring, and with it, the power of the Three Rings, which embody much of their own power. Hood notes that while Gandalf as one of the supernatural Maiar sent from Valinor is "remarkably unlike an elf", out of the wielders of the Three Rings he is the character who most closely combines the angelic and the sacrificial. The poet W. H. Auden, an early supporter of "Lord of the Rings", wrote in the "Tolkien Journal" that good triumphs over evil in the War of the Ring, but the Three Rings lose their power, as Galadriel had prophesied: "If you succeed, then our power is diminished, and Lothlórien will fade, and the tide of time will sweep it away". Hood further writes that Tolkien was suggesting technology such as the making of Rings of Power is in itself neither good nor evil; both the Elves and Sauron (with his armies of orcs) use that technology, as they also both make and wear swords and mail armour, and shoot with bows.


title: Rings of Power

text: Ralph Bakshi's 1978 animated film "The Lord of the Rings" begins with the forging of the Rings of Power and the events of the War of the Last Alliance against Sauron, all of which are animated in a silhouette against a red background using rotoscoping.


title: Rings of Power

text: The forging of the Rings of Power opens the prologue of Peter Jackson's "The Lord of the Rings" film series in the 2001 "". The Three Elven Rings are shown being cast using a cuttlebone mould, an ancient casting technique. These were given to Gil-galad (portrayed by Mark Ferguson), Círdan (Michael Elsworth), and Galadriel (Cate Blanchett). The Tolkien illustrator Alan Lee, employed as a conceptual designer for the films, had a cameo as one of the nine human Ring-bearers who later became the Nazgûl. Sauron (Sala Baker) is seen forging the One Ring at the chamber of Mount Doom. The One Ring was shown to have the ability to adjust in size to the finger of its wearer, such as when it became smaller to fit Isildur (Harry Sinclair). In the extended version, Galadriel properly introduces Nenya, the Ring of Adamant, to Frodo. In the concluding film, "" (2003), the final wearers of the Three Rings—Gandalf (Ian McKellen), Elrond (Hugo Weaving), and Galadriel, appear openly at the Grey Havens wearing the Three, with Galadriel proclaiming the end of its power and the beginning of the Dominion of Men.


title: Rings of Power

text: Four Rings of Power appeared in Jackson's "The Hobbit" film series. In "" (2012), the One Ring was found by Bilbo Baggins (portrayed by Martin Freeman). In the extended version of the succeeding film "" (2013), Gandalf discovers that Sauron took the Ring of Thrór (a Dwarf-Lord) from Thráin (Antony Sher), who revealed in a flashback scene his possession of the Ring during a siege of Moria. In the concluding film "" (2014), Galadriel (Blanchett) reveals Nenya in rescuing Gandalf (McKellen) from Sauron (Benedict Cumberbatch), aided by Saruman (Christopher Lee) and Elrond (Weaving), who is wearing Vilya, the Ring of Air.


title: Rings of Power

text: In the 2014 video game "", the wraith-like spirit of Celebrimbor (fused with the body of the Ranger Talion) recalls how Sauron had deceived him into forging the Rings of Power. In the sequel, "", Celebrimbor forges a new Ring of Power unsullied by Sauron's influence.


title: Kyler Murray

text: Kyler Cole Murray (born August 7, 1997) is an American football quarterback for the Arizona Cardinals of the National Football League (NFL). Following a stint at Texas A&M, Murray played college football at Oklahoma, where he won the Heisman Trophy as a junior. Murray was selected first overall by the Cardinals in the 2019 NFL Draft. He was also selected ninth overall by the Oakland Athletics of Major League Baseball (MLB) in the 2018 draft, making him the first player to be drafted in the first round of both sports.


title: Kyler Murray

text: In his first season, Murray was named NFL Offensive Rookie of the Year after setting several Cardinals franchise rookie quarterback records. He received consecutive Pro Bowl selections during his next two seasons, along with leading the Cardinals to the playoffs in 2021, their first appearance since 2015.


title: Kyler Murray

text: Murray was born in Bedford, Texas to Kevin Murray and Misun Henderson. He attended Allen High School in Allen, Texas. As a senior in 2014, he was the Gatorade Football Player of the Year and became the first player to be named Mr. Texas Football twice. His team won three straight state championships and 43 games in a row. He missed one start during this streak and finished his career with a perfect 42–0 record as a starting quarterback.


title: Kyler Murray

text: Murray was ranked by ESPN, Scout.com, and 247Sports as a five-star recruit and the best dual-threat quarterback in his class. In May 2014, he committed to Texas A&M University to play college football and college baseball. He officially signed with them on February 4, 2015.


title: Kyler Murray

text: Murray also played baseball and was considered one of the top prospects for the 2015 Major League Baseball draft. In high school, Murray was a shortstop and a second baseman. He was the first player to ever be selected for both the Under Armour All-America Baseball Game and Under Armour All-America Football Game.


title: Kyler Murray

text: As a true freshman in 2015, Murray competed with Kyle Allen before the season for the starting quarterback position. Allen won the job, with Murray appearing in games as a backup (primarily on plays involving the wildcat formation). After the team lost two straight games in October, the competition was opened again prior to the South Carolina game, and Murray won the starting quarterback position. In his first start, Murray threw for 223 yards and rushed for 156 yards with a passing touchdown and a rushing touchdown, making him and Cam Newton the only Southeastern Conference quarterbacks in the past 20 years to gain over 100 yards passing and rushing, including a passing touchdown and a rushing touchdown in their first career start. In his second start the next game against Auburn, Murray threw for 105 yards while throwing three interceptions, and rushing for 37 yards in the 26–10 loss. He rebounded from his previous game the next week against Western Carolina, throwing for 191 yards, 3 touchdowns and 2 interceptions, while rushing for 50 yards in the 41–17 blowout win. After the game, Allen was named the starting quarterback and Murray was sidelined for the rest of the season.


title: Kyler Murray

text: On December 24, 2015, Murray announced that he was transferring to the University of Oklahoma. Per NCAA transfer rules, he had to miss the 2016 season.


title: Kyler Murray

text: In the 2017 season, Murray was a backup quarterback to Baker Mayfield. He got the opportunity to play in some games in relief of Mayfield. He made his season debut in the season opener against UTEP. In the 56–7 victory, he came into the game in the second half and finished 10-of-11 for 149 yards and a touchdown. Two weeks later, against Tulane, he hit all three pass attempts for 103 yards and a touchdown. On November 25, against West Virginia, he started the game after Mayfield had to sit out some of the game due to disciplinary actions in the previous game against the Kansas Jayhawks. In the game, he hit both pass attempts for 52 total yards and a touchdown while contributing 80 rushing yards on three carries.


title: Kyler Murray

text: Without Mayfield, Oklahoma considered Murray and Austin Kendall to start at quarterback in 2018. Murray was chosen as the starting quarterback. He threw for more than 4,000 yards and 42 touchdowns in the 2018 regular season, and rushed for over 1,000 yards and 12 rushing touchdowns. In December 2018, Murray won the Heisman Trophy as the best collegiate football player in the country, giving Oklahoma back-to-back Heisman winners. Murray helped lead Oklahoma to a Big 12 Championship win and an appearance in the College Football Playoff. In the 2018 Orange Bowl against Alabama, he threw for 308 passing yards and had two passing touchdowns as the Sooners lost by a score of 45–34. Murray became only the third Heisman Trophy winner to not be awarded consensus All-American honors.


title: Kyler Murray

text: Murray opted out of the MLB draft after deciding to attend Texas A&M. He was initially set to play as an infielder for the Texas A&M Aggies baseball team in the 2016 season until he announced his departure from Texas A&M on December 17, 2015.


title: Kyler Murray

text: Murray played for the Oklahoma Sooners baseball team in 2017 as a left fielder. He had a .122 batting average and six runs batted in (RBIs) in 27 games. After the 2017 season, he played collegiate summer baseball for the Harwich Mariners of the Cape Cod Baseball League. In 2018, playing as a centerfielder, Murray batted .296 with 10 home runs, 47 RBIs, and 10 stolen bases.


title: Kyler Murray

text: Despite Murray's reported intention to continue his football career, the Oakland Athletics selected Murray with the ninth overall selection of the 2018 MLB draft. He signed a contract with the Athletics which included a $4.66 million signing bonus. Prior to his junior year with the football team, Murray said that he would report to spring training in 2019 to begin his professional baseball career. However, following his Heisman Trophy-winning 2018 season, he would forgo his senior year and enter the NFL Draft. The A's retain his rights, should he return to baseball.


title: Kyler Murray

text: In January 2019, Murray announced that he would enter the 2019 NFL Draft. On February 11, he announced his decision to focus on his football career, forgoing baseball.


title: Kyler Murray

text: Some believed that Murray's pursuit of a football career at the expense of a potential one in baseball was a mistake because of his limited stature relative to a typical NFL quarterback. At the NFL Combine, Murray was not expected to match his listed height of 5'10", because colleges often exaggerate measurements to make players more attractive to professional teams. Murray's final measurements were 5'10 1/8" and 207 pounds, similar to that of then-Seattle Seahawks starting quarterback Russell Wilson.


title: Kyler Murray

text: Despite not taking part in individual drills at the combine, many saw Murray's draft stock improve because of his greater-than-expected measurements, though some football scouts and pundits remain skeptical of the official listing. In contrast, NFL Network reporter Charley Casserly said that Murray had "the worst report I’ve ever heard on a top-ranked quarterback from the interview part of it", though Murray's agent disputed this report. Gil Brandt also questioned the veracity of Casserly's assertions. He was ranked as the best quarterback prospect available by multiple outlets and sports websites.


title: Kyler Murray

text: Murray was drafted first overall by the Arizona Cardinals in the 2019 NFL Draft, becoming the shortest quarterback drafted in the first round. When leading Texas Tech's football program, Cardinals head coach Kliff Kingsbury said that he would hypothetically spend the draft's top selection on Murray. The pick made Murray the first player to be drafted in the first round of both the NFL and MLB drafts, the first time that two quarterbacks from the same university have gone in the first round in successive seasons after Baker Mayfield was selected first in the 2018 NFL Draft and the first quarterback under 6 feet selected number one in an NFL draft. On May 9, 2019, Murray signed his four-year rookie contract, worth $35.2 million with the Cardinals.


title: Kyler Murray

text: Murray played his first NFL game on September 8, 2019 against the Detroit Lions, finishing with 308 passing yards, two touchdowns, and an interception as the game ended in a 27–27 tie. Murray led the Cardinals to a comeback in the fourth quarter from a 16-point deficit, joining Jake Plummer as the only Cardinals rookie quarterbacks to throw for 300 yards and two touchdowns since the AFL-NFL merger in 1970. During Week 2 against the Baltimore Ravens, Murray finished with 349 passing yards as the Cardinals lost 23–17. In Week 4 against the Seattle Seahawks, Murray threw for 241 yards and a pick-six and rushed four times for 27 yards and his first NFL rushing touchdown in the 27–10 loss. In the next game against the Cincinnati Bengals, Murray threw for 253 yards and rushed for 93 yards and a touchdown in the 26–23 victory. During Week 6 against the Atlanta Falcons, Murray threw for 340 yards and three touchdowns and rushed 11 times for 32 yards in a narrow 34–33 victory. He was named the NFC Offensive Player of the Week for his performance.


title: Kyler Murray

text: In Week 10, against the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, Murray threw for 324 passing yards, three touchdowns, and one interception in the 30–27 loss. In Week 11 against the San Francisco 49ers, Murray threw for 150 yards and two touchdowns and rushed for 67 yards and a touchdown in the 36–26 loss. In Week 16 against the Seattle Seahawks, Murray threw for 118 yards and a touchdown and rushed for 40 yards before exiting the game due to a hamstring injury. Without Murray, the Cardinals won the game 27–13. Before the regular season finale against the Los Angeles Rams, Murray was listed as a game-time decision with a hamstring injury and ultimately played in the game despite being hurt. During the game, Murray threw for 325 yards, two touchdowns, and two interceptions during the 31–24 loss. Afterwards, Cardinals' head coach Kliff Kingsbury said that "It's the most proud I've been of him all season."


title: Kyler Murray

text: Murray finished his rookie season with 3,722 passing yards, 20 passing touchdowns, and 12 interceptions to go along with 544 rushing yards and four rushing touchdowns on 93 carries and was named a Pro Bowl Alternate. At the NFL Honors on February 1, Murray won the AP NFL Offensive Rookie of the Year Award for his performance during the season. He was ranked 90th by his fellow players on the NFL Top 100 Players of 2020.


title: Kyler Murray

text: In Week 1 against the San Francisco 49ers, Murray finished with 230 passing yards, one passing touchdown, and an interception to go along with 91 rushing yards and a rushing touchdown in the 24–20 win. In Week 2 against the Washington Football Team, Murray passed for 286 yards, one passing touchdown, and one interception to go along with eight carries for 67 rushing yards and two rushing touchdowns in the 30–15 victory. During Week 5 against the New York Jets, Murray finished with 380 passing yards, 31 rushing yards, two total touchdowns, and one interception as the Cardinals won 30–10.


title: Kyler Murray

text: On October 14, 2020, Murray was named the NFC Offensive Player of the Week for his performance in Week 5. In Week 7 against the Seattle Seahawks on "Sunday Night Football", Murray completed 34 of 48 passes for 360 yards, three touchdowns, and an interception plus ran 14 times for 67 yards and scored a rushing touchdown as the Cardinals beat the previously undefeated Seahawks 37–34 in overtime. Murray was also named NFC Offensive Player of the Week for his performance in Week 7. In Week 9, against the Miami Dolphins, he had 283 passing yards, three passing touchdowns, 106 rushing yards, and one rushing touchdown in the 34–31 loss.


title: Kyler Murray

text: In Week 10 against the Buffalo Bills, Murray passed for 245 yards, one passing touchdown, and one interception to go along with 11 carries for 61 rushing yards and two rushing touchdowns. He helped the Cardinals mount a comeback win in the final seconds; down 26–30, the Cardinals drove down to the Buffalo 43-yard line with 11 seconds to go before Murray scrambled out of the pocket and connected with DeAndre Hopkins, who was surrounded by three Bills defenders, on a Hail Mary pass. The resulting touchdown, dubbed the "Hail Murray" by the media, allowed Arizona to win 32–30 and take the division lead in the NFC West. In Week 15 against the Philadelphia Eagles, Murray threw for 406 yards, three touchdowns, and one interception, and rushed for 29 yards and another touchdown during the 33–26 win. Murray's performance in Week 15 earned him the NFC Offensive Player of the Week award, his third of the season.


title: Kyler Murray

text: Murray finished the 2020 season with 3,971 passing yards, 26 passing touchdowns, and 12 interceptions to go along with 133 carries for 819 rushing yards and 11 rushing touchdowns. Murray was named to the Pro Bowl for the first time in his career, and although the physical event was canceled due to the Covid-19 pandemic, an exhibition game was held online by means of the Madden 21 video game. Murray participated as one of 4 players representing the NFC, and won the match, earning Madden NFL 21 Pro Bowl MVP. He was ranked 39th by his fellow players on the NFL Top 100 Players of 2021.


title: Kyler Murray

text: In Week 1 against the Tennessee Titans, Murray threw for 289 yards, four passing touchdowns, and one interception to go along with 20 rushing yards and a rushing touchdown as the Cardinals won 38–13. In Week 2 against the Minnesota Vikings, Murray finished with 400 passing yards, 31 rushing yards, two interceptions, and four total touchdowns as the Cardinals narrowly won 34–33 due to the Vikings missing a field goal with three seconds left in the fourth quarter. He was named NFC Offensive Player of the Week for his Week 2 performance. In Week 4 against the Los Angeles Rams, Murray passed for 268 yards and two passing touchdowns, winning 37–20 as the Cardinals snapped an 8-game losing streak against the Rams, beating them for the first time since 2016. In Week 6 against the Cleveland Browns, Murray threw for 229 yards and four passing touchdowns as the Cardinals won 37–14, improving to a league-best record of 6–0. The win also improved Murray's record to 2–0 against former college teammate Baker Mayfield, having previously beaten Mayfield and the Browns in Week 6 of 2019.


title: Kyler Murray

text: Prior to Week 8, Murray had led the Cardinals to the best record in the NFL at 7–0 before getting injured in the final minute of the "Thursday Night Football" loss against the Green Bay Packers. It was later reported that he suffered an ankle injury and ended up missing three weeks before returning in Week 13 against the Chicago Bears. In his first game back, Murray had 123 passing yards, 59 rushing yards, and four total touchdowns in the 33–22 win. In Week 14 against the Los Angeles Rams on "Monday Night Football", Murray threw for 383 yards and two interceptions as the Cardinals lost 30–23. On Christmas Day against the Indianapolis Colts, Murray threw for 245 yards and a passing touchdown and rushed for 74 yards, including a career-long 57-yard run. However, the Cardinals missed two field goals and an extra-point, narrowly losing 22–16 and dropping their third consecutive game, having previously lost to the Detroit Lions in Week 15.


title: Kyler Murray

text: In Week 17 against the Dallas Cowboys, Murray and the Cardinals bounced back, beating the Cowboys 25–22, with Murray throwing for 263 yards and two touchdowns. Coming into Week 18, the Cardinals were one game back of the Los Angeles Rams in the NFC West standings, needing a Rams loss and a Cardinals win in order to overtake them. In the season finale against the Seattle Seahawks, Murray passed for 240 yards and one touchdown to go with 35 rushing yards. Despite this, the Cardinals lost 38–30, eliminating them from potentially winning the NFC West for the first time since 2015, as the Los Angeles Rams had lost earlier that day to the San Francisco 49ers.


title: Kyler Murray

text: Murray finished the 2021 regular season with 3,787 passing yards, 24 passing touchdowns, and 10 interceptions to go along with 88 carries for 423 rushing yards and 5 rushing touchdowns in 14 games played. Murray also made the Pro Bowl for a second straight season.


title: Kyler Murray

text: On January 17, 2022, Murray made his NFL postseason debut in the , losing to the Los Angeles Rams 34–11. Murray struggled throughout the game, throwing for just 137 yards, two interceptions, and zero touchdowns, as well as setting a career low in passer rating (40.9). He was ranked 57th by his fellow players on the NFL Top 100 Players of 2022.


title: Kyler Murray

text: The Cardinals picked up the fifth-year option on Murray's contract on April 27, 2022. On July 21, 2022, Murray signed a five-year, $230.5 million contract extension to stay with the Cardinals, with $160 million being guaranteed.


title: Kyler Murray

text: In the season opener against the Kansas City Chiefs, Murray threw for 193 yards, two touchdowns, and 29 rushing yards. However, the Cardinals defense gave up 44 points, allowing the Chiefs to score touchdowns on their first three drives as the Cardinals dropped their sixth consecutive home game, losing 44–21. In Week 2 against the Las Vegas Raiders, Murray and the Cardinals were shutout in the first half, with Murray throwing an interception as the Cardinals trailed 20–0 at halftime. However, Murray erupted in the second half, throwing for 277 yards and a touchdown plus a rushing two-point conversion, along with scoring a rushing touchdown and throwing for a second two-point conversion to tie with 0:00 left in regulation. The Cardinals would go on to win 29–23 in overtime.


title: Kyler Murray

text: In Week 4 against the Carolina Panthers, Murray threw for 207 yards with two touchdowns and an interception to go along with a rushing touchdown as the Cardinals won 26–16. The win also improved Murray's record over former college teammate Baker Mayfield, moving him to 3–0 against his former teammate. In Week 7 against the New Orleans Saints on "Thursday Night Football", Murray threw for 204 yards and a touchdown on 20-of-29 passing as the Cardinals won 42–34, snapping an eight-game losing streak at home. In Week 8 against the Minnesota Vikings, Murray scored his 100th career touchdown, becoming the 12th fastest player to reach that milestone.


title: Kyler Murray

text: In Week 14 against the New England Patriots on "Monday Night Football", Murray suffered a non-contact knee injury in the first quarter. He was carted off the field and did not return. The next day, an MRI revealed that Murray tore his ACL, ending his season. Murray finished the season with 2,368 passing yards, 14 passing touchdowns, and 7 interceptions to go along with 88 carries for 418 rushing yards and 3 rushing touchdowns in 11 games played.


title: Kyler Murray

text: Murray is a third-generation Korean American, with his maternal grandmother being a South Korean national.


title: Kyler Murray

text: Murray is a Christian. Murray's father, Kevin Murray, was a quarterback at Texas A&M from 1983 to 1986. His uncle, University of Texas alumnus Calvin Murray, is a former professional baseball player for the San Francisco Giants, Texas Rangers, and Chicago Cubs. His cousin, Devin Duvernay, is a University of Texas alumnus and is a wide receiver for the Baltimore Ravens.


title: Kyler Murray

text: Murray is an avid chess player, and he has said it has helped him become a better football player. As a child, he won school tournaments.


title: Sheffield

text: Sheffield is a city in South Yorkshire, England, whose name derives from the River Sheaf which runs through it. The city serves as the administrative centre of the City of Sheffield. It is historically part of the West Riding of Yorkshire and some of its southern suburbs were transferred from Derbyshire to the city council. It is the largest settlement in South Yorkshire.


title: Sheffield

text: The city is in the eastern foothills of the Pennines and the valleys of the River Don with its four tributaries: the Loxley, the Porter Brook, the Rivelin and the Sheaf. Sixty-one per cent of Sheffield's entire area is green space and a third of the city lies within the Peak District national park. There are more than 250 parks, woodlands and gardens in the city, which is estimated to contain around 4.5 million trees. The city is south of Leeds, east of Manchester, and north of Nottingham.


title: Sheffield

text: Sheffield played a crucial role in the Industrial Revolution, with many significant inventions and technologies having developed in the city. In the 19th century, the city saw a huge expansion of its traditional cutlery trade, when stainless steel and crucible steel were developed locally, fuelling an almost tenfold increase in the population. Sheffield received its municipal charter in 1843, becoming the City of Sheffield in 1893. International competition in iron and steel caused a decline in these industries in the 1970s and 1980s, coinciding with the collapse of coal mining in the area. The Yorkshire ridings became counties in their own right in 1889, the West Riding of Yorkshire county was disbanded in 1974. The city then became part of the county of South Yorkshire; this has been made up of separately-governed unitary authorities since 1986. The 21st century has seen extensive redevelopment in Sheffield, consistent with other British cities. Sheffield's gross value added (GVA) has increased by 60% since 1997, standing at £11.3 billion in 2015. The economy has experienced steady growth, averaging around 5% annually, which is greater than that of the broader region of Yorkshire and the Humber.


title: Sheffield

text: Sheffield had a population of 556,500 at the 2021 census, making it the second largest city in the Yorkshire and the Humber region. The Sheffield Built-up Area, of which the Sheffield sub-division is the largest part, had a population of 685,369 also including the town of Rotherham. The district borough, governed from the city, had a population of at the mid-2019 estimate, making it the most populous district in England. It is one of eleven British cities that make up the Core Cities Group. In 2011, the unparished area had a population of 490,070.


title: Sheffield

text: The city has a long sporting heritage and is home both to the world's oldest football club, Sheffield F.C., and the world's oldest football ground, Sandygate. Matches between the two professional clubs, Sheffield United and Sheffield Wednesday, are known as the Steel City derby. The city is also home to the World Snooker Championship and the Sheffield Steelers, the UK's first professional ice hockey team.


title: Sheffield

text: The name, "Sheffield", has its origins in Old English and derives from the name of a principal river in the city, the River Sheaf. This name, in turn, is a corruption of "shed" or "sheth", which refers to a "divide" or "separation". The second half of the name Sheffield refers to a field, or forest clearing. Combining the two words, it is believed that the name refers to an Anglo-Saxon settlement in a clearing by the confluence of the River Don and River Sheaf.


title: Sheffield

text: The area now occupied by the City of Sheffield is believed to have been inhabited since at least the late Upper Paleolithic, about 12,800 years ago. The earliest evidence of human occupation in the Sheffield area was found at Creswell Crags to the east of the city. In the Iron Age the area became the southernmost territory of the Pennine tribe called the Brigantes. It is this tribe who are thought to have constructed several hill forts in and around Sheffield.


title: Sheffield

text: Following the departure of the Romans, the Sheffield area may have been the southern part of the Brittonic kingdom of Elmet, with the rivers Sheaf and Don forming part of the boundary between this kingdom and the kingdom of Mercia. Gradually, Anglian settlers pushed west from the kingdom of Deira. A Britonnic presence within the Sheffield area is evidenced by two settlements called Wales and Waleswood close to Sheffield. The settlements that grew and merged to form Sheffield, however, date from the second half of the first millennium, and are of Anglo-Saxon and Danish origin. In Anglo-Saxon times, the Sheffield area straddled the border between the kingdoms of Mercia and Northumbria. The "Anglo-Saxon Chronicle" reports that Eanred of Northumbria submitted to Egbert of Wessex at the hamlet of Dore (now a suburb of Sheffield) in 829, a key event in the unification of the kingdom of England under the House of Wessex.


title: Sheffield

text: After the Norman conquest of England, Sheffield Castle was built to protect the local settlements, and a small town developed that is the nucleus of the modern city. By 1296, a market had been established at what is now known as Castle Square, and Sheffield subsequently grew into a small market town. In the 14th century, Sheffield was already noted for the production of knives, as mentioned in Geoffrey Chaucer's "The Canterbury Tales", and by the early 1600s it had become the main centre of cutlery manufacture in England outside London, overseen by the Company of Cutlers in Hallamshire. From 1570 to 1584, Mary, Queen of Scots, was imprisoned in Sheffield Castle and Sheffield Manor.


title: Sheffield

text: During the 1740s, a form of the crucible steel process was discovered that allowed the manufacture of a better quality of steel than had previously been possible. In about the same period, a technique was developed for fusing a thin sheet of silver onto a copper ingot to produce silver plating, which became widely known as Sheffield plate. These innovations spurred Sheffield's growth as an industrial town, but the loss of some important export markets led to a recession in the late 18th and early 19th century. The resulting poor conditions culminated in a cholera epidemic that killed 402 people in 1832. The population of the town grew rapidly throughout the 19th century; increasing from 60,095 in 1801 to 451,195 by 1901. The Sheffield and Rotherham railway was constructed in 1838, connecting the two towns. The town was incorporated as a borough in 1842, and was granted city status by letters patent in 1893. The influx of people also led to demand for better water supplies, and a number of new reservoirs were constructed on the outskirts of the town.


title: Sheffield

text: The collapse of the dam wall of one of these reservoirs in 1864 resulted in the Great Sheffield Flood, which killed 270 people and devastated large parts of the town. The growing population led to the construction of many back-to-back dwellings that, along with severe pollution from the factories, inspired George Orwell in 1937 to write: "Sheffield, I suppose, could justly claim to be called the ugliest town in the Old World".


title: Sheffield

text: The Great Depression hit the city in the 1930s, but as international tensions increased and the Second World War became imminent; Sheffield's steel factories were set to work manufacturing weapons and ammunition for the war effort. As a result, the city became a target for bombing raids, the heaviest of which occurred on the nights of 12 and 15 December 1940, now known as the Sheffield Blitz. The city was protected by barrage balloons managed from RAF Norton. More than 660 people died and many buildings were destroyed or left badly damaged, including the Marples Hotel, which was hit directly by a 500lb bomb, killing over 70 people.


title: Sheffield

text: In the 1950s and 1960s, many of the city's slums were demolished, and replaced with housing schemes such as the Park Hill flats. Large parts of the city centre were also cleared to make way for a new system of roads. In February 1962, the city was devastated by the Great Sheffield Gale; winds of up to killed four people and damaged 150,000 houses, more than two-thirds of the city's housing stock at the time. Increased automation and competition from abroad resulted in the closure of many steel mills. The 1980s saw the worst of this run-down of Sheffield's industries, along with those of many other areas of the UK. The building of the Meadowhall Centre on the site of a former steelworks in 1990 was a mixed blessing, creating much-needed jobs but hastening the decline of the city centre. Attempts to regenerate the city were kick-started when the city hosted the 1991 World Student Games, which saw the construction of new sporting facilities such as the Sheffield Arena, Don Valley Stadium and the Ponds Forge complex.


title: Sheffield

text: Sheffield is changing rapidly as new projects regenerate some of the more run-down parts of the city. One such, the "Heart of the City Project", has initiated a number of public works in the city centre: the Peace Gardens were renovated in 1998, the Millennium Galleries opened in April 2001, the Winter Gardens were opened in May 2003, and a public space to link these two areas, the Millennium Square, was opened in May 2006. Additional developments included the remodelling of Sheaf Square, in front of the refurbished railway station. The square contains "The Cutting Edge", a sculpture designed by Si Applied Ltd and made from Sheffield steel.


title: Sheffield

text: Sheffield was particularly hard hit during the 2007 United Kingdom floods and the 2010 'Big Freeze'. Many landmark buildings such as Meadowhall and the Hillsborough Stadium flooded due to being close to rivers that flow through the city. In 2010, 5,000 properties in Sheffield were identified as still being at risk of flooding. In 2012 the city narrowly escaped another flood, despite extensive work by the Environment Agency to clear local river channels since the 2007 event. In 2014 Sheffield Council's cabinet approved plans to further reduce the possibility of flooding by adopting plans to increase water catchment on tributaries of the River Don. Another flood hit the city in 2019, resulting in shoppers being contained in Meadowhall Shopping Centre.


title: Sheffield

text: Between 2014 and 2018, there were disputes between the city council and residents over the fate of the city's 36,000 highway trees. Around 4,000 highway trees have since been felled as part of the ‘Streets Ahead’ Private Finance Initiative (PFI) contract signed in 2012 by the city council, Amey plc and the Department for Transport to maintain the city streets. The tree fellings have resulted in many arrests of residents and other protesters across the city even though most felled trees in the city have been replanted, including those historically felled and not previously replanted. The protests eventually stopped in 2018 after the council paused the tree felling programme as part of a new approach developed by the council for the maintenance of street trees in the city. In May 2022, Sheffield was named a "Tree City of the World" in recognition of its work to sustainably manage and maintain urban forests and trees.


title: Sheffield

text: Sheffield is governed at the local level by Sheffield City Council and is led by Councillor Terry Fox (Assumed office


title: Sheffield

text: 19 May 2021). It consists of 84 councillors elected to represent 28 wards: three councillors per ward. Following the 2019 local elections, the distribution of council seats is Labour 49, Liberal Democrats 26, the Green Party 8 and UKIP 1. The city also has a Lord Mayor; though now simply a ceremonial position, in the past the office carried considerable authority, with executive powers over the finances and affairs of the city council. The position of Lord Mayor is elected on an annual basis.


title: Sheffield

text: For much of its history the council was controlled by the Labour Party, and was noted for its leftist sympathies; during the 1980s, when Sheffield City Council was led by David Blunkett, the area gained the epithet the "Socialist Republic of South Yorkshire". However, the Liberal Democrats controlled the Council between 1999 and 2001 and took control again from 2008 to 2011.


title: Sheffield

text: The majority of council-owned facilities are operated by independent charitable trusts. Sheffield International Venues runs many of the city's sporting and leisure facilities, including Sheffield Arena and the English Institute of Sport. Museums Sheffield and the Sheffield Industrial Museums Trust take care of galleries and museums owned by the council.


title: Sheffield

text: The city of Sheffield is part of the wider South Yorkshire Mayoral Combined Authority, headed by mayor Oliver Coppard since 2022. The combined authority covers the former 1974–1986 South Yorkshire County Council area which functions either went to local or regional authorities.


title: Sheffield

text: In 2004, as part of the "Moving Forward: The Northern Way" document, city regions were created in a collaboration with the three northern regional development agencies. These became independent Local Enterprise Partnerships in 2011.


title: Sheffield

text: The area's partnership retains the Sheffield City Region name, covering the South Yorkshire authorities, as well as Bolsover District, Borough of Chesterfield, Derbyshire Dales, North East Derbyshire and Bassetlaw District. In 2014, the "Sheffield City Region Combined authority" was formed by the South Yorkshire local authorities with the other councils as non-constituent members and the partnership integrated with the authority structure. In September 2020, the authority changed to its current name.


title: Sheffield

text: The city returns five members of parliament to the House of Commons, with a sixth, the Member of Parliament for Penistone and Stocksbridge representing parts of Sheffield and Barnsley. The former Deputy Prime Minister Nick Clegg was an MP for Sheffield, representing Sheffield Hallam from 2005 until he was unseated 2017, when the seat returned a Labour MP for the first time in its history.


title: Sheffield

text: Sheffield is located at . It lies directly beside Rotherham, from which it is separated largely by the M1 motorway. Although Barnsley Metropolitan Borough also borders Sheffield to the north, the town itself is a few miles further away. The southern and western borders of the city are shared with Derbyshire; in the first half of the 20th century Sheffield extended its borders south into Derbyshire, annexing a number of villages, including Totley, Dore and the area now known as Mosborough Townships.


title: Sheffield

text: Sheffield is a geographically diverse city. It nestles in the eastern foothills of the Pennines, between the main upland range and Peak District National Park to the west, and the lower-lying South Yorkshire Coalfield to the east. It lies at the confluence of five rivers: Don, Sheaf, Rivelin, Loxley and Porter. As such, much of the city is built on hillsides with views into the city centre or out to the countryside. Blake Street, in the S6 postcode area, is the third steepest residential street in England, with a gradient of 16.6°. The highest point in the City of Sheffield is near High Stones and Margery Hill. The city's lowest point is just above sea level near Blackburn Meadows. However, 79% of the housing in the city is between above sea level. This variation of altitudes across Sheffield has led to frequent claims, particularly among locals, that the city was built on Seven Hills. As this claim is disputed, it likely originated as a joke referencing the Seven Hills of Rome.


title: Sheffield

text: Estimated to contain around 4.5 million trees, Sheffield has more trees per person than any other city in Europe and is considered to be one of the greenest cities in England and the UK, which was further reinforced when it won the 2005 Entente Florale competition. With more than 250 parks, woodlands and gardens, it has over 170 woodlands (covering ), 78 public parks (covering ) and 10 public gardens. Added to the of national park and of water this means that 61% of the city is greenspace. Despite this, about 64% of Sheffield householders live further than from their nearest greenspace, although access is better in less affluent neighbourhoods across the city. Sheffield also has a very wide variety of habitat, comparing favourably with any city in the United Kingdom: urban, parkland and woodland, agricultural and arable land, moors, meadows and freshwater-based habitats. There are six areas within the city that are designated as sites of special scientific interest.


title: Sheffield

text: The present city boundaries were set in 1974 (with slight modification in 1994), when the former county borough of Sheffield merged with Stocksbridge Urban District and two parishes from the Wortley Rural District. This area includes a significant part of the countryside surrounding the main urban region. Roughly a third of Sheffield lies in the Peak District National Park. No other English city had parts of a national park within its boundary, until the creation in March 2010 of the South Downs National Park, part of which lies within Brighton and Hove.


title: Sheffield

text: Under the Köppen classification, Sheffield has an oceanic climate type (Cfb). Like the rest of the United Kingdom, the climate in Sheffield is generally temperate. The uplands of the Pennines to the west can create a cool, gloomy and wet environment, but they also provide shelter from the prevailing westerly winds, casting a "rain shadow" across the area. Between 1971 and 2000 Sheffield averaged of rain per year; December was the wettest month with and July the driest with . July was also the hottest month, with an average maximum temperature of . The highest temperature ever recorded in the city of Sheffield was , on 19 July 2022. The average minimum temperature in January and February was , though the lowest temperatures recorded in these months can be between , although since 1960, the temperature has never fallen below , suggesting that urbanisation around the Weston Park site during the second half of the 20th century may prevent temperatures below occurring.


title: Sheffield

text: The coldest temperature to be recorded was in 2010. (Note: The official Weston Park Weather Station statistics, which can also be viewed at Sheffield Central Library, has the temperature at , recorded on 20 December, and states that to be the lowest December temperature since 1981.) The coldest temperature ever recorded in the city of Sheffield at Weston Park, since records began in 1882, is , registered in February 1895. The lowest daytime maximum temperature in the city since records began is , also recorded in February 1895. More recently, was recorded as a daytime maximum at Weston Park, on 20 December 2010 (from the Weston Park Weather Station statistics, which also can be viewed at Sheffield Central Library.) On average, through the winter months of December to March, there are 67 days during which ground frost occurs.


title: Sheffield

text: The Weston Park Weather station, established in 1882, is one of the longest running weather stations in the United Kingdom. It has recorded weather for more than 125 years, and a 2008 report showed that the climate of Sheffield is warming faster than it has at any time during this period, with 1990 and 2006 being the hottest years on record. In collaboration with the Stockholm Environment Institute, Sheffield developed a carbon footprint (based on 2004–05 consumption figures) of 5,798,361 tonnes per year. This compares to the UK's total carbon footprint of 698,568,010 tonnes per year. The factors with the greatest impact are housing (34%), transport (25%), consumer (11%), private services (9%), public services (8%), food (8%) and capital investment (5%). Sheffield City Council has signed up to the campaign.


title: Sheffield

text: Sheffield is within a green belt region that extends into the wider surrounding counties, and is in place to reduce urban sprawl, prevent the towns and areas in the Sheffield built-up area conurbation from further convergence, protect the identity of outlying communities, encourage brownfield reuse, and preserve nearby countryside. This is achieved by restricting inappropriate development within the designated areas, and imposing stricter conditions on permitted building. The main urban area and larger villages of the borough are exempt from the green belt area, but surrounding smaller villages, hamlets and rural areas are 'washed over' with the designation. A subsidiary aim of the green belt is to encourage recreation and leisure interests, with many rural landscape features and facilities included.


title: Sheffield

text: Sheffield is made up of many suburbs and neighbourhoods, many of which developed from villages or hamlets that were absorbed into Sheffield as the city grew. These historical areas are largely ignored by the modern administrative and political divisions of the city; instead it is divided into 28 electoral wards, with each ward generally covering 4–6 areas. These electoral wards are grouped into six parliamentary constituencies. Sheffield is largely unparished, but Bradfield and Ecclesfield have parish councils, and Stocksbridge has a town council.


title: Sheffield

text: The United Kingdom Census 2001 reported a resident population for Sheffield of 513,234, a 2% decline from the 1991 census. The city is part of the wider Sheffield urban area, which had a population of 640,720. In 2011 the racial composition of Sheffield's population was 84% White (81% White British, 0.5% White Irish, 0.1% Romani or Irish Traveller, 2.3% Other White), 2.4% of mixed race (1.0% White and Black Caribbean, 0.2% White and Black African, 0.6% White and Asian, 0.6% Other Mixed), 8% Asian (1.1% Indian, 4% Pakistani, 0.6% Bangladeshi, 1.3% Chinese, 1.0% Other Asian), 3.6% Black (2.1% African, 1% Caribbean, 0.5% Other Black), 1.5% Arab and 0.7% of other ethnic heritage. In terms of religion, 53% of the population are Christian, 6% are Muslim, 0.6% are Hindu, 0.4% are Buddhist, 0.2% are Sikh, 0.1% are Jewish, 0.4% belong to another religion, 31% have no religion and 7% did not state their religion. The largest quinary group is 20- to 24-year-olds (9%) because of the large university student population.


title: Sheffield

text: The Industrial Revolution served as a catalyst for considerable population growth and demographic change in Sheffield. Large numbers of people were driven to the city as the cutlery and steel industries flourished. The population continued to grow until the mid-20th century, at which point, due to industrial decline, the population began to contract. However, by the early 21st century, the population had begun to grow once again.


title: Sheffield

text: The population of Sheffield peaked in 1951 at 577,050, and has since declined steadily. However, the mid-2007 population estimate was 530,300, representing an increase of about 17,000 residents since 2001.


title: Sheffield

text: Although a city, Sheffield is informally known as "the largest village in England", because of a combination of topographical isolation and demographic stability. It is relatively geographically isolated, being cut off from other places by a ring of hills. Local folklore insists that, like Rome, Sheffield was built "on seven hills". The land surrounding Sheffield was unsuitable for industrial use, and now includes several protected green belt areas. These topographical factors have served to restrict urban spread, resulting in a relatively stable population size and a low degree of mobility.


title: Sheffield

text: After many years of decline, the Sheffield economy is going through a strong revival. The 2004 Barclays Bank Financial Planning study revealed that, in 2003, the Sheffield district of Hallam was the highest ranking area outside London for overall wealth, the proportion of people earning over £60,000 a year standing at almost 12%. A survey by Knight Frank revealed that Sheffield was the fastest-growing city outside London for office and residential space and rents during the second half of 2004. This can be seen in a surge of redevelopments, including the City Lofts Tower and accompanying St Paul's Place, Velocity Living and the Moor redevelopment, the forthcoming NRQ and the Winter Gardens, Peace Gardens, Millennium Galleries and many projects completed under the Sheffield One redevelopment agency. The Sheffield economy grew from £5.6 billion in 1997 (1997 GVA) to £9.2 billion in 2007 (2007 GVA).


title: Sheffield

text: The "UK Cities Monitor 2008" placed Sheffield among the top ten "best cities to locate a business today", the city occupying third and fourth places respectively for best office location and best new call centre location. The same report places Sheffield in third place regarding "greenest reputation" and second in terms of the availability of financial incentives.


title: Sheffield

text: Sheffield has an international reputation for metallurgy and steel-making. The earliest official record of cutlery production, for which Sheffield is particularly well known, is from 1297 when a tax return for 'Robert the Cutler' was submitted. A key reason for Sheffield's success in the production of cutlery lies in its geographic makeup. The abundance of streams in the area provided water power and the geological formations in the Hope Valley, in particular, provided sufficient grit stones for grinding wheels. In the 17th century, the Company of Cutlers in Hallamshire, which oversaw the booming cutlery industry in the area and remains to this day, was established and focused on markets outside the Sheffield area, leading to the gradual establishment of Sheffield as a respected producer of cutlery. this gradually developed from a national reputation into an international one.


title: Sheffield

text: Playing a crucial role in the Industrial Revolution, the city became an industrial powerhouse in the 18th century, and was dubbed "Steel City". Many innovations in these fields have been made in Sheffield, for example Benjamin Huntsman discovered the crucible technique in the 1740s at his workshop in Handsworth. This process was rendered obsolete in 1856 by Henry Bessemer's invention of the Bessemer converter. Thomas Boulsover invented Sheffield Plate (silver-plated copper) in the early 18th century.


title: Sheffield

text: Stainless steel was invented by Harry Brearley in 1912, bringing affordable cutlery to the masses. The work of F. B. Pickering and T. Gladman throughout the 1960s, 1970s and 1980s was fundamental to the development of modern high-strength low-alloy steels. Further innovations continue, with new advanced manufacturing technologies and techniques being developed on the Advanced Manufacturing Park, situated just over the boundary in the borough of Rotherham, by Sheffield's universities and other independent research organisations. Organisations located on the AMP include the Advanced Manufacturing Research Centre (AMRC, a research partnership between the Boeing Company and the University of Sheffield), Castings Technology International (CTI), The Welding Institute (TWI), Rolls-Royce plc and McLaren Automotive.


title: Sheffield

text: Forgemasters, founded in 1805, is the sole remaining independent steel works in the world and dominates the north-east of Sheffield around the Lower Don Valley. The firm has a global reputation for producing the largest and most complex steel forgings and castings and is certified to produce critical nuclear components, with recent projects including the Royal Navy's submarines. The firm also has the capacity for pouring the largest single ingot (570 tonnes) in Europe and is currently in the process of expanding its capabilities. In July 2021 Forgemasters was bought outright by the UK Ministry of Defence for £2.56 million, with the intention of investing a further £400 million over the next decade. The decision was based on the important role Forgemasters plays in the construction of the UK nuclear submarine fleet as well other vessels for the Royal Navy.


title: Sheffield

text: While iron and steel have long been the main industries of Sheffield, coal mining has also been a major industry, particularly in the outlying areas, and the Palace of Westminster in London was built using limestone from quarries in the nearby village of Anston.


title: Sheffield

text: Sheffield has a large public sector workforce, numbering 77,500 workers. During the period 1995 – 2008 (a period of growth for the city and many others in the UK), the number of jobs in the city increased by 22% and 50% of these were in the public sector. Major public sector employers include the National Health Service, The University of Sheffield, Sheffield Hallam University, and numerous government departments and agencies including the Home Office (Visas & Immigration), Department for Education & Department for Business, Innovation & Skills. Recently developed offices in St Paul's Place and Riverside Exchange play host to the aforementioned government departments.


title: Sheffield

text: Sheffield City Council, which is also a major public sector employer in the city, employs over 8,000 people, spread across four different sections (known as portfolios). Sheffield City Council is also the Local Education Authority (LEA) and as such manages all states schools and their associated staff. As part of its mandate to provide public services, Sheffield City Council maintains contracts with three private contractors - Amey, Veolia & Capita (contract ending in 2020). Together, these contractors provide additional employment in the city.


title: Sheffield

text: Sheffield is a major retail centre, and is home to many High Street and department stores as well as designer boutiques. The main shopping areas in the city centre are on The Moor precinct, Fargate, Orchard Square and the Devonshire Quarter. Department stores in the city centre include Marks and Spencer and Atkinsons. Sheffield's main market was once Castle Market, built above the remains of the castle. This has since been demolished. Sheffield Moor Market opened in 2013 and became the main destination for fresh produce. The market has 196 stalls and includes local and organic produce, as well as international fusion cuisine such as Russian, Jamaican and Thai. In March 2021 it was announced that the Sheffield branch of John Lewis would close due to falling sales and a move to online shopping, which had increased because of the COVID-19 pandemic. John Lewis received £3 million of public funding from Sheffield City Council in 2020 to keep the local store open. The local Debenhams branches are expected to re-open ofter the lifting of the 2021 COVID-19 lockdown restrictions, but only to clear existing stock, after which it is expected the stores will close.


title: Sheffield

text: With the decline in high street shopping around the UK, efforts have been made to rejuvenate Sheffield City Centre and improve the retail and leisure offering. Major developments include Leopold Square, The Moor, St Paul's Place (a mixed use development) and the Heart of the City I & II projects. In March 2022 Sheffield City Council announced that a new leisure hub would be constructed at the southern end of Fargate. The £300,000 hub will feature cafes, shops and large screen TVs for sports events. The development is also related to other efforts to rejuvenate the Fargate area, such as a new mixed-use events and coworking hub at 20-26 Fargate, also overseen by Sheffield City Council.


title: Sheffield

text: Meadowhall shopping centre, located to the north of Sheffield close to the boundary with Rotherham and next to the M1 motorway, is a major regional shopping destination and currently ranked eleventh largest in the UK with a floorspace of . Attracting over 30 million visitors a year (up from 19 million in its first year), the centre hosts 270 shops, 37 restaurants and a cinema. Many nationally renowned brands have a presence at the centre including Marks & Spencer, Hugo Boss and Jaeger. The centre is connected to the city centre by rail, Supertram and bus services. Prior to the opening of Meadowhall, the site was occupied for East Hecla (steel) works, a major employer in the north-east of the city. The opening of Meadowhall in 1990 marked the beginning of major rejuvenation in the Lower Don Valley as the steel industry contracted. In a 2010 survey of forecast expenditure at retail centres in the United Kingdom, Meadowhall was ranked 12th and Sheffield City Centre 19th.


title: Sheffield

text: To the south of Meadowhall shopping centre is Meadowhall Retail Park, a 190,500 sq ft retail park with 13 retail and food units. Next to the retail park is the Sheffield IKEA store, opened in 2017. The opening ceremony was attended by dignitaries including the Swedish Ambassador to the UK. The Sheffield store was the 20th opened in the UK and led to the creation of 480 new local jobs.


title: Sheffield

text: The second largest shopping centre in Sheffield is Crystal Peaks, located in the south-east of the city, alongside Drakehouse Retail Park. Both the shopping centre and the retail park opened in 1988 and now attract around 11 million visitors a year. In total there are 101 retailers (including eateries) at Crystal Peaks and Drakehouse, including a range high street brands. Crystal Peaks also includes a travel interchange which serves as the hub for bus travel in the east and south-east of Sheffield.


title: Sheffield

text: Beyond the city centre there are numerous other leisure and shopping areas. To the south-west of the city centre is Ecclesall Road, a major thoroughfare connecting the south-western suburbs to the city centre and lined with bars, restaurants and cafes, as well as housing. The area has a large student community owing to the presence of the Sheffield Hallam University Collegiate Campus adjacent to Ecclesall Road. The leisure section of the road is approximately long, with the south-western end becoming Ecclesall Road South and a predominantly


title: Sheffield

text: residential area. Another popular shopping and leisure area is London Road, to the south of the city centre. The road is famous for its multicultural community which has led to an abundance of international cuisines being served at restaurants along the road. To the west of the city centre is Broomhill, a student-centric neighbourhood which also caters for school students as well local university students and NHS staff. To the north-west of the city centre are Hillsborough, a large retail and sports hub, and Stocksbridge Fox Valley, a modern leisure and retail centre built on a brownfield industrial site.


title: Sheffield

text: In the late 2010s and early 2020s several new developments began to the north of the city centre in the Kelham Island Quarter, an increasingly popular mixed-use development. The area has become known for its independent cafes, restaurants and pubs and has seen significant residential development in recent years.


title: Sheffield

text: Tourism plays a major role in the city's economy on account of numerous attractions - namely the Peak District, sports events (in particular, the Snooker World Championships) and musical festivals (such as Tramlines). In 2019, the tourism industry in Sheffield was valued at £1.36 billion and supported 15,000 jobs.


title: Sheffield

text: In 2012, Sheffield City Region Enterprise Zone was launched to promote development in a number of sites in Sheffield and across the wider region. In March 2014 additional sites were added to the zone.


title: Sheffield

text: Motorways near the city are the M1 and M18. Sheffield Parkway connects the city centre to the motorways. The M1 skirts the city's north-east and crossing Tinsley Viaduct near Rotherham. The M18 branches from the M1 close to Sheffield, linking the city with Doncaster and ending at Goole.


title: Sheffield

text: The A57 and A61 roads are the major trunk roads through Sheffield. These run east–west and north–south respectively, crossing in the city centre, from where the other major roads generally radiate spoke-like. An inner ring road, mostly constructed in the 1970s and extended in 2007 to form a complete ring, allows traffic to avoid the city centre, and an outer ring road runs to the east, south-east and north, nearer the edge of the city, but does not serve the western side of Sheffield.


title: Sheffield

text: Sheffield Interchange is the city's bus main hub; other bus stations are at Halfway, Hillsborough and Meadowhall. After deregulation in 1986, there were multiple new service providers. Current providers are First South Yorkshire, Stagecoach Yorkshire, TM Travel, Hulleys of Baslow and Sheffield Community Transport. First South Yorkshire, is the largest bus operator. There is also the Bus Rapid Transit North route between Sheffield and Maltby via Rotherham. It was planned as two routes: the Northern route to Rotherham via Meadowhall and Templeborough, and the southern route via the developing employment centre and Waverley. The northern route opened in September 2016; it involved an 800m Tinsley Road Link to be built between Meadowhall and the A6178 road. Yorkshire Terrier, Andrews and the parent company Yorkshire Traction formerly operated in the city and were taken-over by Stagecoach Sheffield. Stagecoach Group also operates the Supertram and has an integrated ticketing system with buses and tram.


title: Sheffield

text: Coach services running through Sheffield are operated by National Express and to a lesser extent Megabus and Flixbus. National Express services call at Sheffield Interchange, Meadowhall Interchange and Meadowhead Bus Stop. Megabus and Flixbus services only call at Meadowhall. National Express services 564, 560, 350, 320, 310 and 240 call at Sheffield, as do others on a less frequent basis. The 560/564 service is a direct connection to London Victoria Coach Station via Chesterfield and Milton Keynes, operating 12 times a day in both directions. The 350 and 240 services connect Sheffield to Manchester Airport and Heathrow/Gatwick Airports respectively. Two Megabus services, the M12 and M20, call at Sheffield en route to London from Newcastle upon Tyne and Inverness respectively.


title: Sheffield

text: Although hilly, Sheffield is compact and has few major trunk roads, therefore cycling in Sheffield is a popular method of transport. It is on the Trans-Pennine Trail, a National Cycle Network route running from West to East from Southport in Merseyside to Hornsea in the East Riding of Yorkshire and North to South from Leeds in West Yorkshire to Chesterfield in Derbyshire. There are many cycle routes going along country paths in the woods surrounding the city, and an increasing number of cycle lanes in the city itself.


title: Sheffield

text: Train services in Sheffield are operated by East Midlands Railway, CrossCountry, TransPennine Express and Northern. Major railway routes through Sheffield station include the Midland Main Line (to London via the East Midlands), the Cross Country Route (which runs between eastern Scotland and south-west England) and the lines linking Liverpool and Manchester with and East Anglia. With the redevelopment of completed, Sheffield has a direct connection to continental Europe, via the East Midlands Railway, to St Pancras and the Eurostar to France and Belgium. East Midlands Railway also operates three premium trains: the "Master Cutler", the "Sheffield Continental" and the "South Yorkshireman".


title: Sheffield

text: High Speed 2 is planned to serve a city centre station in Sheffield as a spur from the main HS2 line. Proposals for the HS2 station's location have been considered, including: Sheffield station, (on the location of the former station of the same name) and Meadowhall Interchange. It is scheduled to be operational by 2033. There will be four trains an hour serving the station, with journey times to London and Birmingham reduced to 1 hour 19 minutes and 48 minutes respectively. In November 2021, the UK government published the "Integrated Rail Plan for the North and Midlands" in which it announced HS2's eastern spur route (between the East Midlands and Leeds) had been cancelled, which had been planned to include Sheffield. The document announced upgrades to the Midland Mainline, with HS2 trains able to run on this upgraded and electrified route.


title: Sheffield

text: There are several local rail routes running along the city's valleys and beyond, connecting it with other parts of South Yorkshire, West Yorkshire, Nottinghamshire, Lincolnshire and Derbyshire. These local routes include the Penistone Line, the Dearne Valley Line, the Hope Valley Line and the Hallam Line. As well as the main stations of Sheffield and Meadowhall, there are five suburban stations at Chapeltown, Darnall, Woodhouse and Dore & Totley. As part of improvements to rail services along the Hope Valley Line between Sheffield and Manchester, a new platform, station facilities and track are being built at Dore & Totley Station with the expanded station due to open in 2023.