The Concise Oxford Dictionary of Place Names gives the word "Nipa" as of Swedish and Norwegian origin and means a crag or steep river bank.

There is no evidence of ancient settlement in Neepsend, the area being heavily forested with the steep ground to the north covered by the dense woodland of Old Park Wood, although a Late Bronze Age socketed axehead, found in 1921 close to Hillfoot Bridge does suggest ancient human activity in the area.

[1] The Scandinavians arrived in the 10th century and started to clear the woodland and turn the valley floor by the River Don into fields and meadows.

The Great Sheffield Flood devastated the Neepsend area on 12 March 1864, killing approximately 77 people in the deluge.

[5][6] The 20th century brought the opening of the Neepsend Power Station, erected on the site of the Old Parkwood brick works in 1902.

It was ideally situated on the banks of the Don where water could be used for condensing purposes and close to the railway station which supplied coal.

It became obsolete and was decommissioned in 1976 when the CEGBs newer stations on the River Trent started to feed the national grid.

September 2012 saw the completion of new flood defences between Nursery Street and the River Don, the work costing £680,000 incorporates a pocket park into the design.

The once had Sheffield's last traditional hand-made scissor makers, Ernest Wright and Son Limited,[13] until their relocation to premises closer to the city centre in 2011.

[14] The New Testament Church of God also on Nursery Street is a Grade II listed building built by Flockton, Lee & Flockton it was financed by Anne and Elizabeth Harrison, who stipulated that it should be an exact copy of Christ Church in Attercliffe (1826) and therefore has an old-fashioned look with thin pointed buttresses, a crenellated parapet and a square tower.

Kelham Island was created by the building of a goit (mill race) fed from the River Don to serve the water wheels powering the workshops of the areas' now former industry.

The Neepsend area, and in particular the old Gasworks site, is the main focus of the University of Sheffield's Integrated Design Project for 3rd year Civil and Structural Engineering Students.

In October 2017 a small mammal survey carried out by the Sorby Natural History Society found that the Parkwood Springs area was home to bank voles and wood mice.