Removals Company in Sheffield

Sheffield's quality Moving Services

If you're looking for a reliable moving service in Sheffield then your search is over! Van Man Hire are proud to provide a professional, fully insured and low-cost moving service to the people of Sheffield and surrounding areas.

We specialise in full house removals and office relocation. Our team of friendly and efficient packers and movers will use their expertise to relocate all your valuable possessions and make sure each and every item is moved safe, sound and secure to its rightful place in your new property.

House Removals

It doesn't matter whether you are moving items from just 1 bedroom in a flat or the entire contents of a 5 bedroom house with garage and garden furniture! Van Man Hire can help! Our domestic removal services cater for every need. Contact us today for your part or full house removal service.

Office Relocation

We help many businesses with their office moves. Whether you are moving from 1 room in a building to another area of the same building, or moving to completely new premises. We will assist you every step of the way, even down to the dismantling and reassembling of desks and other furniture, to packing away computers and setting them up in their new places. Whatever the level of service you require, we can help!

Removals Vans

We have a selection of 3.5 Tonne Extra-LWB Panel vans, 3.5 Tonne LWB Luton vans with tail lifts and 6.5 Tonne LWB Luton vans with tail lifts to cater for every move of any size. You can see pictures of some of our removal vans here.

Removals Preparation

Like anything in life, preparation is the key and removals is no exception. There's a lot more to it than you think so please check out our Removals Preparation Guide for hints, tips and advice. Everything is covered from protecting your delicate items efficiently to prevent breakages in transit, covering floors to protect laminate flooring from scratches and snags to carpets, right down to what size boxes you need to be using for particular items.

Removal Packs and Boxes

We can't stress enough how important it is to have the correct type of boxes and an adequate amount of them for your moving day. We highly recommend these Discount Moving Packs which can be ordered for next day delivery.

Removals Prices

Unlike the larger moving companies such as Pickfords and Britannia, using Van Man Hire for your removals service in Sheffield often works out half the price of what you would have paid with them. Click the prices links from our menus for a detailed list of our pricing structure and then compare them with the bigger removal companies to know for certain that Van Man Hire is the best choice!

Sheffield's History

The area now occupied by the City of Sheffield has been inhabited since at least the late Upper Palaeolithic period, 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. Following the departure of the Romans, the Sheffield area may have been the southern part of the Celtic 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 Celtic 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 King Eanred of Northumbria submitted to King 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. After the Norman conquest, 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 of 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.

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 town was incorporated as a borough in 1842 and was granted a city charter 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. 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".

A recession in the 1930s was halted by increasing international tensions as the Second World War loomed; 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. More than 660 lives were lost and many buildings destroyed.

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. 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 shopping 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.

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 recently refurbished railway station. The new square contains The Cutting Edge, a sculpture designed by Si Applied Ltd and made from Sheffield steel.

Sheffield was particularly hard-hit during the 2007 United Kingdom floods and the 2010 Big Freeze. Many landmark buildings such as Meadowhall and the Sheffield Wednesday grounds flooded due to being close to nearby rivers that flow through the city.

Local Information for Sheffield

Sheffield is a city and metropolitan borough in South Yorkshire. Historically part of the West Riding of Yorkshire, its name derives from the River Sheaf, which runs through the city. With some of its southern suburbs annexed from Derbyshire, the city has grown from its largely industrial roots to encompass a wider economic base. The population of the City of Sheffield is 551,800 (2011 est.) and it is one of the eight largest regional English cities that make up the Core Cities Group. Sheffield is the third largest English district by population.

During the 19th century, Sheffield gained an international reputation for steel production. Many innovations were developed locally, including crucible and stainless steel, fuelling an almost tenfold increase in the population during the Industrial Revolution. Sheffield received its municipal charter in 1843, becoming the City of Sheffield in 1893. International competition in iron and steel caused a decline in traditional local industries during the 1970s and 1980s, coinciding with the collapse of coal mining in the area.

The 21st century has seen extensive redevelopment in Sheffield along with other British cities. Sheffield's gross value added (GVA) has increased by 60% since 1997, standing at £9.2 billion in 2007. The economy has experienced steady growth averaging around 5% annually, greater than that of the broader region of Yorkshire and the Humber.

The city is located within the valleys of the River Don and its four tributaries, the Loxley, the Porter Brook, the Rivelin, and the Sheaf. 61% 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, and an estimated 2 million trees, giving Sheffield the highest ratio of trees to people of any city in Europe.

Sheffield has a long sporting heritage. In 1857 a collective of cricketers formed the world's first-ever official football club, Sheffield F.C., and the world's second-ever, Hallam F.C.. The 2 major football teams in the city are Sheffield United who play their home games at Bramall Lane, and Sheffield Wednesday who play their home matches at Hillsborough.

Sheffield Eagles RLFC are the city's professional Rugby league team who play their matches at Owlerton Stadium. The stadium also hosts greyhound racing and the speedway way team ,Sheffield Tigers.

Sheffield Tigers RUFC are the rugby union club and Sheffield Sharks are the local basket ball team.

Sheffield is also home to the Sheffield Steelers ice hockey team who play out of the 8,500 seater Sheffield Arena.

Sheffield also has close ties with snooker, with the city's Crucible Theatre being the venue for the World Snooker Championships

Valley Centertainment is a leisure and entertainment complex in the Don Valley containing a bowling alley, cinema multiplex and a wide range of restaurants.

Meadowhall is an indoor shopping centre which is the largest shopping centre in Yorkshire and the eighth largest in the United Kingdom.

Sheffield is home to 2 universities, Sheffield Halam University and Sheffield University.

Sheffield Town Talk contains information on places to go, things to do and so on in Sheffield.

And of course, Sheffield is home to the outstanding Man and Van Removals company, Van Man Hire!, based in Stannington.