Case study of Castleton.

For background information I used mainly the Internet (the search engine yahoo) and then briefly read the text and after that I made notes on the information.

My Plan Of Action:

I will systematically work from one side of the boundary (map reference 149 830) to the other (map reference 154 831), for map references see base map (fig.).

I will visit the key areas of significance such as Peveril Castle (this will help me with my fourth hypotheses). Another very important area is the main car park (this is where most of my pedestrian counting, recording of places of origin etc will take place.) The final and possible the most important area of interest is the tourist information shop, there is a lot of information readily available such as bus timetables and even a student pack.  

RESULTS/OBSERVATIONS:

In this section of the case study I will briefly describe Castleton using pictures as well as text. I will then present my results and observations. The village is centred around a square in which the church lies - this is just off the main road and directly beneath Peveril Castle on the hill behind. Other signs of the Norman era still remain - across the main road by the Bull's Head Inn you can see a section of the Town Ditch, a defensive earthwork built around the village. This was once a feature of many of the villages of the region. The two main features of interest, apart from the castle, are Cave Dale and Peak Cavern. Both are reached from the top of the main square - Cave Dale is a collapsed cavern and a natural arch covered the very bottom part until 200 years ago. It is a spectacular walk up the dale. As you climb up the dale you get a good view of Peveril castle. It is also worth thinking about the fact that a lot of the way you are walking right above the chambers of Peak Cavern! The second main feature, Peak Cavern is probably the most impressive natural cavern in Britain and its open as a showcave from April to October. Around the village square are old houses and cottages, including a Youth Hostel, a Peak National Park Information Centre, The George Inn and several houses. On the main road there are rows of shops, but most of them sell only Blue John and other tourist trinkets, souvenirs. The main road has several more pubs and the Castle. Towards Mam Tor there is a public car park (this is the car park used in many of the surveys). Around the corner towards Sheffield there are the Post Office and more pubs. I used many different methods to accurately record my observations (see methods).

Pictures Of Castleton:

Using these images I am hoping to be able show the geology the layout of the land, the kind of area Castleton is located, and other key aspects of Castleton. 

Sunday (weather pleasant):

Monday (weather poor):

The end of Castleton’s main road (A 625):  

Excellent = 3                  Average = 0          Poor= -3

        

Maps:

Fig 15 and 16:

This map is simply used to easily and accurately identify from where each car (in the main car park) is from. The tracing paper is used to identify the different radius’s (each one 30 miles wide.)

Fig 12,13 and 14:

This is the base map that takes many a different use. These uses are:

• Land use map,
• Boarder Lines,
• Highlighting areas of interest.

Leaflets/Articles:

Fig 18:

The first leaflet that I will be using is headed “PEAK DISTRICT BUS TIMETABLE” this shows the bus services that enter Castleton. These are the “Hulleys 173” and the “ Hulleys 175”. There are only a few bus services that enter Castleton; this is odd especially seeing as though it has masses of tourists visiting all year round.    

Fig 17:

The second leaflet is another bus timetable but this time for the “260 Stagecoach East Midland Service”. The same principles apply as the last timetable (see above).

Graphs:

Fig 11:

This is a graph that helps to us to understand hypothesis number 1. It can clearly be seen that in the area of tourism the numbers are much larger, even though more people live in Castleton (around 700*).  

Fig 10:

This graph supports the “day-tripper” suggestion in hypothesis number 2. There is obvious correlation between “number of miles from Castleton” and “number of cars with in the radius”. There would be an obvious anomalous result (the 151-180 radius) but this can be accounted for because of London.

Fig 9:

This graph shows us the difference in number of visitors on a weekend (Sunday) compared to a weekday (Monday); this is going to be very important for hypothesis number 3.

* Information taken from the 1991 Census.

CONCLUSIONS:

In his section of the case study I will analyse the results, relating the finds back to my hypotheses.

Hypothesis 1:

“Even though Castleton attracts a large amount of tourists, there is still a problem when it comes to shopping for the locals there is an inadequate amount of shops (selling food, toiletries etc) in the village to support the number of villagers.”

In this hypothesis I was trying to prove how few shops there are for the locals in Castleton, my main source that I will be using is the base map and the tracings (Fig.12, 13 and 14) that are used with it. On the tracing, which shows, the commercial area e.g. shops, hotels etc.

The tracing shows that there are only three shops purely for the locals for a population of 700; there are also five shops that sell both items for locals and tourists. Even though this still only comes to an amount of eight shops for the locals. This means for every 112 villagers there is 1 shop. I believe this is inadequate and therefore proves my hypothesis.

Hypothesis 2:

“Most visitors to Castleton are day-trippers that live within 30 miles of Castleton, this is reflected in congestion problems and the lack of over night accommodation, with an efficient and reliable public transport service this would help cut down congestion.”

In this hypothesis I will try to prove the above. To do this I will refer back to the Fig.15 and 16 this map evidently shows that most people do indeed come from in a 30-mile radius of Castleton its self. To prove the point that Castleton’s public transport service is insufficient. There are hundreds of car passing (e.g. through Winnets Pass to Manchester) or visiting Castleton. There are only three bus services running in and out of Castleton (one from Edale-Castleton, the second travelling from Castleton to Bakewell via Tideswell and Litton the final bus service travels from Castleton to Bakewell via Hathersage. If there were a wider range of public transport (for example there isn’t a train station) it would allow the tourists from further away to visit easily. I think that fig and fig show that most visitors to Castleton are day-trippers. The fact that Castleton only has three bus services and no other modes of public transport, proves that most visitors use cars, this will not help the congestion problem, with a train service and a bus service with a broad network would greatly reduce the congestion problem.      

Hypothesis 3:

“Castleton’s busiest time of the week is the weekend.”

The main source for this hypothesis is Fig.9, which shows the number of tourists on a weekday compared to on a weekend; there is an obvious difference in the numbers. The Sunday figures tower above the Mondays. This would be sufficient proof by its self but due to the weather (Sundays weather was good, Mondays was poor) and the fact that I only have results for one weekend and one weekday, this now makes an almost certain result become unreliable without any more research.

Hypothesis 4:

“Castleton has many attractions for the cultural tourist.”

Castleton has many a attraction ranging from interesting geology to Norman castles. It also has caves and attractive walks. This will appeal too most cultured tourist is has history, stories, geography and beauty. But there is nothing else such as a specialist museum etc. this would interest another variety of tourist. But this again cannot be proved unless a museum or gallery etc. was set up. This hypothesis can’t be proved either.    

EVALUATION:

There was little that went wrong in the two days that the case study took place. But there were a few minor problems that could have affected my results, one of these was the vast weather difference between the two days, it was especially unfortunate because there was exceptional weather on the Sunday (weekend), which is the Castleton’s busiest time of the week (tourist wise). And the Monday’s weather was terrible, this may have put tourists off visiting Castleton.

This project would greatly benefit from more time, possible taking recordings from one Sunday and Monday and then do the same recordings etc. once more the next week giving you much more reliable results.

Through out the case study a lot went our way and we were fortunate through out the two days, but things did also go wrong such as; on the Sunday… and on the Monday some of the group hadn’t come prepared for the rain leaflets and work became illegible. This caused some people a real problem.

If I could of done something differently, it would probably of been to stay later on the Monday (we stayed until around three o’clock) this would have enabled me to collect pedestrian count data at exactly the same time instead of not even being able to do a second pedestrian count (in the residential part of the village).  

BIBLIOGRAPHY:

Books:

• I didn’t use any books

Articles/Leaflets:

• I used two leaflets (attached to page below)

Internet Sources:

• Used the national trust website (searched for on “Yahoo”)

Computer Programmes:

• I used Microsoft Word

APPENDICIES

Origin of cars in the main car park:

1. Sheffield= 16
2. Colchester=1
3. Cheltenham=1
4. Bognor Regis=1
5. London=3
6. Solihull (Birmingham)=1
7. Stafford=1
8. Stockport=6
9. Coventry=1
10. Nottingham=6
11. Slough=1
12. Milton Keynes=1
13. Northholt=1
14. Derby=2
15. Welwyn Garden City=1
16. Inverness=1
17. Worksop=2
18. Barnsley=2
19. Lincoln=1
20. Rotherham=3
21. Doncaster=1
22. Ashford=1
23. Stoke=2
24. Ellesmere (Liverpool) =1
25. Edgware=1
26. Swansea=1
27. Manchester=6
28. Rochdale=2
29. Norwich=1
30. Warrington=1
31. Aldeburgh=1
32. Chesterfield=1
33. Hathersage=1
34. Cambridge=1
35. Leeds=1
36. Wigan=1
37. Stratford upon Avon=1
38. Goole=1
39. Rochdale=2
40. Birmingham=1

Overspill:

41. Ossett=1            
42. Sheffield=7
43. Rotherham=1
44. Huddersfield=2
45. Rochdale=1
46. Derby=1                              
47. Market Rasen=1
48. Boston=1
49. Sutton in Ashfield Knots=1
50. St Helens=1
51. Wales=1
52. Manchester=2
53. Norwich=1
54. Stockport=2
55. Warrington=3
56. Todmorden=1
57. Doncaster=1
58. Leicester=1
59. Nottingham=1