Doncaster is a large town in South Yorkshire, England. Located around 32km from Sheffield, it is often referred as “Donny”. In recent years it has shown marks of intensive development considering the expansion of shopping centre and transport interchange named Frenchgate Centre. Also Education City’s campus is in development being the biggest educational investment of kind in England at time.
From late 18th to 20th century Doncaster has showed great industrial potential mainly due to its richness of deep seem coal lying underneath the area. In the light of Industrial Revolution a railway and locomotive industry was established because of the sites good location and connection to other areas as well as the locals’ high expertise in specialist metal works. During both World War railway industry was enhanced into munitions factory. An extensive housing program was carried out growing the city in rapid speeds.
Doncaster is also famous for its 19th and 20th century confectioners including Parkinson’s the Butterscotch inventers, Nuttalls Mintoes and Murray Mints.
Today’s Doncaster is housing numerous distribution centres thanks to its proximity to major urban centres and good motor and railway infrastructure, for example The International Rail Freight Centre at Black Bank is transporting good to Europe via rail. Large companies such as Tesco, Next, Ikea and Exel have their huge warehouses and logistic centres located there. The B&Q Distribution centre was the largest free-standing warehouse I the whole UK. Doncaster was granted Fairtrade Town status on 5 March 2004.
Although becoming the largest coal mining area in the beginning of the 20th century and rapidly growing in any terms Doncaster, like many other coal mining-dependant areas, received a significant strikeback in the 1980s as several pits closed causing the whole economy to slow down. Today’s tendencies show that Doncaster is one of the most rapidly growing areas in UK having an average growth rate around 16%.
Access and moving around Doncaster is easy. Using the fine infrastructure a rental car is a great way to explore around. Avis, Hertz, Europcar, Budget, Sixt, Alamo, National & Thrifty Car Rental are the most popular car hiring companies around Doncaster.