Sheffield's partner cities

Bapaume is a commune in the Pas-de-Calais department in the Hauts-de-France region in northern France.  It is located 30 minutes’ drive from Arras and Cambrai and 1 hr 45 minutes by car from Paris and Brussels. Bapaume has a population of around 4,250 inhabitants.

History of Bapaume

On the first day of the Battle of the Somme on 1 July 1916, men of the 12th Battalion, York and Lancaster Regiment ('the Sheffield Pals') were ready to launch an attack on the German position in the fortified hilltop hamlet of nearby Serre. The troops met with devastating machine gun fire and by the end of the day, the Battalion reported 248 killed, 246 wounded and 18 missing.

Bapaume is now home to a cemetery for fallen soldiers which contains 410 burials and commemorations of the First World War. 

At the end of the First World War, formal links were established to provide support to rebuild Bapaume. Successive Lord Mayors have regularly travelled from Sheffield to France for commemorative ceremonies honouring the war dead.

The Sheffield-Bapaume relationship

Given the connection between the two cities, on 14 July 1920, Sheffield decided to 'adopt' Bapaume. The British 'adoption' of places on the battlefield was especially touching, coming as it did from people who had suffered such heavy losses to free the region between 1917 and 1918.

On 25 July 1920, the Lord Mayor of Sheffield, William Farewell Wardley, and his brother visited Bapaume. They were welcomed at an official reception and then toured the town.  The relationship bloomed and in 1921 a group from Bapaume visited Sheffield. They were presented with the proceeds of local fundraising events and donations with a value of 210,000 francs.

On 3 February 1921 a committee was created in Bapaume called the "Comité Locale de la Ville de Sheffield".  They decided to use the Sheffield donations to build homes for the workers on a site owned by the town.

Whilst the two locations could not be more different in terms of size, geography or economic make-up, it is a prime example of how the Sheffield community came together to support a location affected by the blight of the First World War. The 'adoptive' relationship is considered to be more of a symbolic relationship.

Further information

For further information, please visit the Bapaume website and Sources for the Study of Sheffield and Bapaume & Serre, France.

History of Bochum

Bochum is a former industrial city, situated on the River Ruhr in the middle of the 'Ruhrgebiet', Germany's industrial heartland. It has much in common with Sheffield, having grown to prominence through the development of its coal and steel industries, suffered devastation in the war, and experienced a decline in its traditional industries followed by regeneration through diversification.

Today, Bochum is a thriving city, home to approximately 15,000 companies.  Bochum has a population of 371,000, of which 56,000 are students. Bochum is at the geographical centre of North Rhine-Westphalia and its approximate 18 million inhabitants produce a quarter of the German GDP.

Key sectors within the local economy are healthcare, creative industries and manufacturing, while IT security and geothermal energy are seen as growth opportunities. Much like Sheffield, 40% of the City of Bochum is made up of green spaces.

The Sheffield-Bochum relationship

Sheffield has had twinning links with the German city of Bochum since 1950, when the City Council responded to an initiative by the British Control Commission in Germany, proposing links and exchanges to promote peace, understanding and friendship.

After a period of inactivity since 2010, Bochum reached out to Sheffield in June 2023 with an invitation for the Lord Mayor to visit Bochum to coincide with the Bochumer Musiksommer event, held over the August Bank Holiday weekend. Following on from this visit, there has been regular engagement between the two cities.

There is also long-standing and continuing community engagement through our Philharmonic Chorus and an annual tournament of junior football teams.

Further information

For further information, please visit the City of Bochum website.

Pittsburgh is a city in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, United States, and the county seat of Allegheny County. It is the 68th-largest city in the US with a population of 302,971 as of the 2020 census.

Pittsburgh is known as 'the Steel City' for its more than 300 steel-related businesses. Aside from steel, Pittsburgh has led in the manufacturing of other important materials such as aluminium, glass and petroleum. It is also a leader in the computing, electronics and automotive industries.

After 1990, Pittsburgh transformed into a hub for the healthcare, education and technology industries. Pittsburgh is home to large medical providers, including the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center (UPMC), and 68 colleges and universities, including research and development leaders Carnegie Mellon University and the University of Pittsburgh.

The Sheffield-Pittsburgh relationship

The University of Sheffield's Advanced Manufacturing Research Centre (AMRC) held their Industrial Board out in Pittsburgh in June 2024, and the city has also engaged with Pittsburgh Technology Council and Carnegie Mellon University. 

Sheffield City Council and the City of Pittsburgh are hoping to engage in knowledge exchange around responses to tackling homelessness, as well as addressing climate change and flood resilience. 

There are also plans to participate in discussions with the University of Pittsburgh, The Grable Foundation and Suburban General Hospital, a former hospital which has been transformed into a life-sciences business accelerator.

Further information

For further information visit the City of Pittsburgh website.

Kawasaki is a city in Kanagawa Prefecture, Japan, one of the main cities of Greater Tokyo Area and Keihin Industrial Area. It is the second most populated city in Kanagawa Prefecture after Yokohama, and the seventh most populated city in Japan (including the Tokyo Metropolitan Area). As of December 2023, the city has an estimated population of 1,545,942, with 773,050 households. 

Kawasaki has many factories and development bases of heavy industry companies, including JFE Group and Nippon Oil Corporation and high technology companies, such as Fujitsu and NEC Corporation. Due to its proximity to the central Tokyo area and Tokyo Haneda International Airport, Kawasaki is transforming from an industrial metropolis into a research and development hub for information technologies and life sciences.

Kawasaki also offers many tourist attractions, including the Japan Open Air Folk House Museum, Kawasaki Ukiyo-e Gallery, 'Kawasaki Daishi', one of the most visited temples in Japan, and the City Hall Observatory with views of Tokyo, Yokohama and Mount Fuji.

The Sheffield-Kawasaki relationship

The two cities originally came together through the involvement of the University of Sheffield School of East Asian Studies. Contact with Kawasaki recently resumed in winter of 2023, and the city is keen to collaborate with Sheffield on projects from tourism through to specific sector specialisms, including how we can encourage greater collaboration between our respective SMEs.

In November 2024, Sheffield will be receiving a 13-strong delegation from Kawasaki City Council. As part of their UK Study Tour, the delegates are visiting Sheffield to learn how we support Looked After Children and Young Carers. The delegation will hear from Council staff and partner organisations working in this field, including representatives from Sheffield Children’s University and the Virtual School.  They will also visit the Sheffield Children’s Orchestra for a musical performance whilst in Sheffield.

Although very different from one another, Kawasaki and Sheffield have similar stories: Both cities have an industrial past and in recent years have managed to transform themselves in areas such as advanced manufacturing and the creative and digital sectors. Both also pride themselves as cities with high quality natural and urban environments, which make them great places to live, invest and work.

Further information

For further information, please visit the City of Kawasaki website.

Chengdu is a sub-provincial city which serves as the capital of the Chinese province of Sichuan.

With a population of 20,937,757 inhabitants during the 2020 Chinese census, it is the fourth most populous city in China. It is also traditionally the hub of Southwest China.

Chengdu is now one of the most important economic, financial, commercial, cultural, transportation and communication centres in China.  Its economy is diverse, characterised by the machinery, automobile, medicine, food and information technology industries.

Chengdu also hosts many international companies: more than 270 Fortune 500 companies have established branches in Chengdu.

The Sheffield-Chengdu relationship

The Sheffield-Chengdu twin city relationship was formally signed in 2010 and mainly facilitated by the relationship between Sheffield United FC and Chengdu Blades football clubs, which were then both owned by Scarborough Group.

Prior to this, Chengdu and Sheffield already had close links. For example, Sheffield’s local Chinese community played an important role in supporting Chengdu after the Sichuan earthquake in 2008, which helped cement closer connections between both cities.

Our two universities have had a disproportionately high percentage of international students from Chengdu and Sichuan Province, which has a direct benefit to the universities along with the City’s economy.

The two cities are currently exploring the potential to focus on collaboration in respect of education, the environment and cultural opportunities, together with the respective Chambers of Commerce looking to assist with business-to-business trade. 

In terms of cultural activities, the Lunar New Year celebrations in Sheffield are an important platform for cultural exchange. Three Sheffield runners will also be competing in the Chengdu Half Marathon in October 2024.

Khmelnytskyi, located in the west of Ukraine on the banks of the Buh River, is known throughout Ukraine as a trading city and considers itself as a 'marketplace of innovation and opportunity'.

The city houses a total of 18 higher education institutions, including the Khmelnytskyi National University, Khmelnytskyi University of Economics and Khmelnytskyi University of Law and Administration. The city has a total of 30,000 students.

Similarly to Sheffield, Khmelnytskyi also sees itself very much as a 'green city'. The city is also home to an range of annual festivals, rock and cultural events.

Khmelnytskyi has won several international awards, including the Europe Prize, awarded by the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe. The prize recognises the efforts made by an individual city to promote European ideals. According to a study by the USAID International Organisation, Khmelnytskyi has been the most competitive city in Ukraine for three years in a row.

The Sheffield-Khmelnytskyi relationship

Khmelnytskyi became a Twin City of Sheffield in December 2022, on the basis of developing closer relationships between the two cities, to include cultural and educational exchange and explore future business and trade opportunities. The relationship followed on from active participation with the local Ukrainian community in Sheffield, facilitated through the Association of Ukrainians in Great Britain (AUGB) and associated with Sheffield's bid to become the host city for the Eurovision Song Contest 2023.

The Mayor and Deputy Mayor visited Sheffield in December 2022 to sign a Memorandum of Understanding which established our twinning relationship. Regular engagement over Teams leading up to the twinning has taken place and continued subsequently.  

Further information can be found at the City of Khmelnytskyi website.

You can also watch this video about Khmelnytskyi's application for the Europe Prize.

Sheffield City Council and Nablus Municipality entered into a Friendship Agreement on 29 October 2024. The Agreement was signed by the Lord Mayor of Sheffield and the Mayor of Nablus, following an online meeting held over Teams.

The agreement seeks to promote friendship and international understanding between both cities, working to achieve the following objectives:

• encourage the development of cultural and educational exchange between our citizens
• contribute to a global society where the human rights of all are respected

The Friendship Agreement follows on from links that have been developed between a number of organisations in Sheffield and Nablus. These include the Sheffield Nablus Twinning Association, Sheffield Hallam University, Project Hope and the Seeds Association for Development and Culture in Nablus, and also An Najah University with its prestigious medical school.