© Richard Bird. Creative Commons License: www.geograph.org.uk/reuse.php?id=639358

This zone takes in the urban centre of the city of Sheffield and the large towns of Barnsley, Rotherham and Doncaster; in the Doncaster district this zone also includes the historic cores of Bawtry, Conisbrough, Mexborough, Thorne and Tickhill. These historic settlements are similar in many ways to the Nucleated Rural Settlement zone, however, these settlements have a higher level of complexity. This complexity generally involves the presence of market places, castles, and complex multi-phase planned layouts, all of which constitute evidence for deliberate acts of medieval planning.  Buildings within this zone are often early in date with many examples dating to at least the 18th century.  Road and property division patterns tends to have altered little since their first recording in the 19th century.