Abstract
Four generations of the Fairbank family surveying firm left a remarkable record of their work in the Sheffield region in the century after 1750, a period of growth in population and of development of industry, agriculture and transport. The Fairbanks were involved in the development of mills, workshops and factories, the building of houses of many kinds, estate valuation and agricultural enclosure, and the planning of turnpike roads, river and canal work and of the first generation of railway schemes. Their records have survived in unusual quantity, due to preservation and use by 19th-century surveyors. They present a significant source of historical and topographical information, essential for archaeological interpretation of changes in the urban and rural landscapes of the region. Their value encourages the quest for comparable material elsewhere.
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