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Parson Cross
Parson Cross is a large estate area of Sheffield that is a component of the Firth Park ward of the city. It is roughly 3.75 miles from the centre and shopping district of Sheffield making it a bike ride or bus journey for most people, however it is still close enough to facilitate easy trips to the city centre should the need arise. Parson Cross was constructed almost entirely after the start of World War II and then finished after the war concluded. The majority of the labour was undertaken by Italian prisoners of war who were interned at nearby High Green and who worked to construct many of the houses and buildings in Parson Cross. Historically the area upon which Parson Cross now sits was once all farmland, however in the mid 1930's Sheffield council had decided that a development was needed in order to house the recent influx of residents to the city and the Parson Cross area was chosen for development.
Initially this proved to be a very unpopular decision as the Sheffield-West Riding line of demarcation ran through the site and a number of local residents on both sides of the line voiced fears that their historic villages and settlements were being swallowed up by urban sprawl. At the time Sheffield was a world centre for steel production so it was deemed vital to construct new houses to home the workers and employees who were currently in sub standard housing in the city itself. Towards the end of the 1940's a major process of resettling began with families moving to Parson Cross from various industrial areas in the city itself. The aim was to allow these people to enjoy a higher quality of life and better surroundings by easing the burden on the cramped streets and homes in Sheffield. Parson Cross eventually proved to be a major success story, with its excellent transport links and well constructed affordable housing many of the new residents were quickly settled and simply commuted the short four mile trip into Sheffield city centre each day to work.
Although Parson Cross has not grown in recent years as much as it did after the second world war (it used to be the site of 10% of all of Sheffield's housing) it is still a popular and thriving community and still has much of the atmosphere of a working class paradise as it was originally designed to be. Parson Cross saw in the baby boomer generation through the post war years, and the lush green belt surroundings of Parson Cross provided ample room for children to play in and explore to their hearts content. In order to maintain the standards of living that Parson Cross has come to expect a housing reduction took place in the 1990's with many of the formerly modern but now dated homes being replaced by more spacious homes or simply left as urban green space.
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