ABSTRACT
Urban archaeology in Sheffield benefits from the archive left by the Fairbank surveyors working in the town between 1750 and 1850. It includes field books containing site surveys and quantity-surveyors’ books giving details and costings of structures. There is also correspondence and maps in varying stages of completion. Redevelopment schemes have required PPG16 archaeological assessments and evaluations on sites surveyed by Fairbank. In the Riverside area in central Sheffield, surveys have been matched with the excavated steel works and mill watercourses, and they give details relating to court cases; the Jessop steelworks excavation in the lower Don valley has produced timbers relating to an earlier forge; the Little London site in the Sheaf valley has demonstrated that site names can be attached to more than one place in the landscape, emphasising the need for caution when interpreting documentary evidence. These cases demonstrate how surveyors’ papers complement field archaeology in towns, clarifying excavated features that can in turn add precision to records sketched by surveyors in the field. The Sheffield archive has been found to be unique in the extent of its survival, although more fragmentary collections exist elsewhere, notably for Tyneside and Glasgow.
