These Viking Traders throughout the eighth century started to become pirates and by the early ninth century Viking attacks on the coast became more and more common. In 850 for the first time in England the Vikings set up there first camp in England on the Isle of Thanet. Soon after this the Vikings sacked and over ran Canterbury. Although there are almost no records of this event. Although there is evidence to say that Canterbury's golden age had once more come to an end. By the late ninth century many of the monks and scribes in Canterbury were barely literate, a great contrast to the two previous
centuries when Canterbury had, had the best schools in England. The settlements outside of the city walls soon became abandoned and population density within the city walls grew significantly. The lowest point for Canterbury came around 892-893 AD when large parts of Kent were in Danish hands. The city's mint had also closed and was not re-opened for several decades afterwards.
By the early tenth century though settled times had once more arrived after the re-conquest by Wessex. By the middle of the tenth century Canterbury was once again flourishing. New markets started to reappear outside of the city walls and a new main street was introduced stretching from West gate to a new south gate. Although the Vikings had been defeated they continued to raid the southeast and in 1011 a Viking army raided Canterbury pillaging and burning the cathedral. The cathedral was rebuilt in the following years but only lasted a few decades before being totally destroyed by another fire in 1067. For the last years of the Saxon rule of Britain we can tell that Canterbury was the largest and most important town in Kent and England. Towards the end of the Saxon era citizens of Canterbury rebuilt the cities walls and gateways and also added several churches to the city.
Canterbury came under a new command when in 1066 the Normans invaded England. Although Duke William did not stay long in Canterbury he ordered the first of three royal castles to be built here, although this castle was only a simple motte-and-baily castle. A decade or so later a new castle was built far to the west, just inside Worth Gate. After the completion of the new castle the old one was abandoned. After the death of Thomas Becket in 1170 Canterbury ceased to be an important royal castle.
Instead a new a new castle was built at Dover only 14 miles away.
In 1070 Duke William started to revive the church in England and brought many Benedictine Monks across from Normandy. He also brought in the Monk Gundulf, who was a very skilled masonry, to rebuild the cathedral at Canterbury which had been only a gutted ruin since the second fire in 1067. The old cathedrals ruins were flattened and a new structure was built on top only seven years later. After being completed the cathedral went through a numerous amount of rebuilding with new crypts and shrines being added.
In the 1170 the best recorded event of the medieval history took place. On the29 December the Archbishop Thomas Becket was murdered after disagreeing with the king. Within a few years he was made a saint and pilgrims flocked to the cathedral were he was buried.
Canterbury lived relatively peacefully up until its population peak in the early fourteenth century. The estimated figure around eight thousand. This did not last long with the coming of the Black Death and from 1348 to 1350 the population dropped by over a half. Also bad weather causing crop failure did not help. The outbreak of the Hundred Years war also made things worse.
After recovering from these events Canterbury went through many stages of being rebuilt with major additions being added to the cathedral. Canterbury in 1981 saw a peasants revolt and further still the following year the area was hit by an earth quake which damaged many important buildings.
In the late fifteenth century more rebuilding work was done on the cathedral leaving it in much the same state as it is today.
The late sixteenth century saw religious turmoil come to the country when Henry VII got divorced. By the end of the sixteenth century Canterbury was no long a major city in England and had become merely a market town for east Kent.
With the desolation of monasteries and the destruction the pilgrimage trade Canterbury suffered economic hardship. This was slightly tempered by the arrival of Protestant families fleeing persecution on the Continent. Many of these were silk and cloth weavers and soon set up business in the city. By the early seventeenth century these immigrants made up between a fifth and a quarter of Canterbury's population. At the peek of the weaving trade there were over a thousand looms in the city.
After the civil war and King Charles execution, the cathedral was abandoned and bishops, dean and chapters were done away with. This saw Canterbury's long existence as the centre of Christianity in England come to an end. Even after the monarchy, archbishop, dean and chapters restoration Canterbury had lost its role as an important place.
During the nineteenth century Canterbury's population slowly started to rise. In Canterbury the most important economical trades were in hop-selling, brewing and in public houses.
After the First World War Canterbury remained a small market town yet with the new Dean, George Bell, new life was breathed into the city.
World War Two hit Canterbury with a shock, especially the devastating bombing in 1942. Only 115 people died in this but well over 800 ancient building were destroyed.
After the war the cities governors saw great profit in tourism. Conservation became a big point. Also after the war shops started to pop up in the city and Canterbury started to become a commercial shopping area.
Hypothesis
Hypothesis 1-
I think that there will be a higher density of pedestrians (a larger amount of people) around large low order shops (shops which sell a variety of things) and a lower density (not many people) of pedestrians around high order shops (shops which specialize in products, i.e. furniture) and residential areas, I think this because people will only use the higher order shops when they are looking for specific items i.e. a new car.
Hypothesis 2-
I also think that there will be a high density of people on market day than there will be on a non-market day, I think this as there will be Canterbury's usual shoppers and those who have gone for the market.
Method
To help prove my hypothesis I will do 12 pedestrian counts around Canterbury. Also I will return to Canterbury on a different day to carry out more counts and to also do a land use survey.
Pedestrian Counts
Pedestrian counts will last for duration of two minutes. While doing the count one person will time using a stop clock, while another person counts, this should allow for a more accurate result and doesn't leave all the work to one person.
A count will be carried out at each site, chosen prior to the trip. (See next page for chosen sites) Also one count will be carried out before 12 midday and one after midday. This will make the results a little fairer as some people may not chose to go shopping till later were as some may like their shopping done early. Also it may be able to point out any shopping patterns.
To be included in a count as a pedestrian, members of the public must be:
- On a bicycle
- In a wheel chair or electric cart
- Small children in pushchairs will not be counted.
For a person to count they must cross a certain line or place in the road or pavement.
To help cover more ground in less time my group will split up and take different routes meeting up a stated points to swap data. Also doing this will mean that the majority of counts will be roughly around the same time, this will make the results fairer as it will give a clearer indication of population distributions for that time. (How the people are spread out and how many people are there at the time)
Our group will also keep in contact via the use of portable radios, this will not only help communication within the group but is also better for safety purposes just incase.
I will decide about shops being high or low order by doing a land use survey. (This will be done on a separate day to the actual field trip, due to lack of time). Doing the land use survey on a separate day also gives us more time on the actual field trip to do pedestrian counts. To find the bulk of the shops we will use secondary data collected from the library and web-site (www.onthestour.co.uk) and then check the data by walking around Canterbury making sure everything is in place. This process should be both more accurate and time saving.
Also on the second day, preferably not a market day we will do more pedestrian counts in the same positions as the first, this should help prove my second hypothesis and also gives us something to compare our first results with to check for any unusual results that may have occurred.
Results
After collecting and analysing my data I have been able to find that my original theories were correct. The majority of the day’s population were situated in the high street, i.e. were the low order shops are usually situated. This applied for both days, although the market day (Friday 5 October) was slightly bias as the market was situated in the East end of the high street. (for a full list if shops and type see page)
My second hypothesis proved to be incorrect though with quite a large majority more people going on the none market day with 1290 people being counted on the Saturday and only 1020 people being counted on the Friday (market day). Although there were more people present during our surveys before 12 midday on the market day proving my theory semi correct.
I have also been able to say that a large majority of people walk into the town centre due the amount of people counted walking in or out of the town centre, these were recorded on the outer counts i.e. count 7-West Gate and count 11-Castle street.
To better represent my results I decided to put them into tables and also put them onto maps, over the next few pages these can be seen. They also help demonstrate the patterns that have occurred.
Conclusion
I have concluded that there is a higher density of pedestrians around low order shops than there are high order. This result coincides exactly with what I said in my hypothesis, so therefore my theory is correct. This result occurred due to the fact that people only use high order shops when they are looking for a specific item, i.e. a bed or bathroom, this means that only a few people are looking at these, as there is usually no pattern in people buying these types of objects unless an annual sale is on. The reason that low order shops have such high pedestrian densities around them is that they sell everyday things that people buy on a regular basis, i.e. clothes or food. People also enjoy perusing these types of shops as they may just be looking to burn some money on something nice.
I have also been able to conclude that there are more people on a normal shopping day rather than a market day. This is the opposite of what I have said in my hypothesis. This could be due to one of several reasons.
1 - Friday 5 October (Market day) was over cast, drizzly and cold with the market being out doors this may have put potential shoppers off. However Saturday 13 October was a warmer and less overcast day and this winter sun may have attracted out a few more shoppers than usual.
2 - On Fridays most children between the ages of five and seventeen are at school during the day and the times of our surveys would have missed any school children. On the Saturday these children who were in school on the Friday would be out therefore pushing the survey numbers up.
3 - Canterbury is one of the most popular tourist attractions of the South East. Tourists may be on a weekend break to Canterbury pushing up Saturday numbers. Also school trips may be run on the Saturday as not to interrupt school hours.
Any of these factors could have altered the results although at the end of the day they should have been accounted for in my original hypothesis.
Evaluation
Although better than our trial run field trip, I still feel that are are several areas in which my fieldwork could be improved.
Counts
- More could have been done in one day, i.e. two before and two after midday, I could have then found the mean of each to get a better estimate of population distributions and also it may have also helped see if there was and patterns of shoppers. e.g. The majority of shoppers start in one place and work their way around.
- Do more counts further afield than the ones done, this would give a representation of data and also help with determining Canterbury's CBD (central Business District) as it is large than the area we were able to cover. Also we would be able to see any patterns of the city (sector models) i.e. Hoyt and burgess
- I could include any information to see patterns in types of people in Canterbury on the day, i.e. Tourists, purpose shoppers and recreational shoppers. Also I could survey men, women and children to see if any patterns occurred there.
Data Collection
- I could have had a more accurate data collection method. I could have set up a video camera pointing across the street; I could then later check my results against the video to give a more accurate reading. To double check the accuracy of the counter the person timing could also count the number of passing pedestrians or two counters instead of one could be used.
- Count times could be altered as a large surge of people may occur at certain times and this may fall out of the count times making them inaccurate for the actual data.
- I could have tried to get the count times closer together so as that it gave a better representation of the population distribution i.e. my last count at 11:53 may have the same people in it as the first count at 10:45, this could mean that there was really only half as many people in Canterbury.
My field trip was also slightly bias as Saturday is a very busy shopping day due to schools being off and is slightly unfair to compare to a school day, but unfortunately due to myself having to be at school I couldn't get around this. If I did this work again I would try and study another weekday that was not a market day so as to be able to compare more fairly with the market day. Doing this may also help show more patterns for shopping habits, e.g. more people may shop for one thing on a certain day.
I would also try and find day were the weather was roughly the same standard as with the weather conditions being as they were the Friday was not a nice day to be out and about, if the weather was the same on two days it would give a fair representation of data as peoples preference towards going out would not be altered by the conditions
