A superb folio MANUSCRIPT MAP depicting the region from Sheffield and Chesterfield in the east to Buxton in the west. The great detail includes the country estates of Chatsworth and Haddon Hall near Bakewell. In the centre of the map is the little village of Eyam immortalised in history during the Great Plague of 1665. It arrived in the village in August of that year in a consignment of cloth sent from London. A few days later the tailor George Vicars to whom it was sent was its first victim. Showing the ultimate self sacrifice to stop the spread of the disease the villagers cut themselves off from the rest of the world. The Earl of Devonshire nearby freely supplied the village with food whilst it ran its course. Fourteen months later it claimed its last victim, a total of at least 260 had made that sacrifice.

The proposed road runs south west out of Sheffield and is now known as the Abbeydale Road or the A621. The table comparing the distances of two different routes is upper centre. William Fairbank was part of a four generation family of local surveyors. The companies papers, maps, plans, books and letters are in the Sheffield City Archives. The tradition was begun by his grandfather William Fairbank I, born 1687/88. He was a schoolmaster from a family of Quaker’s said to be from Halifax. He practiced surveying from Sheffield. He died in 1759 leaving a son William Fairbank II (1730-1801) also a schoolmaster and surveyor. His son was William Fairbank III (1771?-1846) the author of this manuscript. He was trained by his father and went into partnership with his brother Josiah as W. and J. Fairbank of West Hill, Sheffield. Eden (1975); Leader, R. E. (1903) ‘Surveyors and Architects of the Past in Sheffield’, Sheffield; Tooley Dictionary.