There are two days on which the market falls. The more popular is the market on Fridays where you can find goods such as grocery's, home goods and other goods (toilet paper, batteries, light bulbs .ect.).
Dorking also has a lot to offer in the fact that there is a farmers market on Wednesdays. This offers goods such as plants, meat, and seeds and lots more.
Dorking now is a very popular town with people, not just locals, but people who live outside of Dorking.
Since the late 1900’s, and slightly before, the market has been cut down a lot. Years ago, there would be around 6 markets per week. These markets included needs for the Victorian Period such as cattle markets; poultry markets, and lots more. Although the market is still used, Dorking is now better known for its Antic shops.
Originally the market stretched from Butter Hill to West Street and included pump corner. However, by the end of the sixteenth century, it had expanded to the High street to make room for the purveyors of luxury goods such as gloves, shoes and spices.
In 1775 a new turnpike road was built from London to Horsham via Dorking, and was soon extended down towards Brighton.
By the 1870's the South street poultry market had gone, but the High street livestock and corn market kept going on and off during the Victorian era. By the 20th century, both cattle and corn markets had ceased.
LANDUSE MAP
For the landuse map we walked around the main high street. The route that or group took is shown on the opposite page. The route we took is marked in blue. We took this route because it took us all the way around Dorking's CBD. By doing this we could analyse the space around Dorking and see what it was used for.
As we walked around the blue route, we filled in the information needed on our fieldwork paper. The rough copy of the map was marked with letters. We marked them with letters because it was a rough copy and we didn’t have a lot of time to colour the small grids in.
As my group walked around the route filling in the landuse map, we walked about 100m down small roads such as Flint Hill. We did this because another one of the tasks that had to be completed, was to look down some of the roads in Dorking and make notes on the rough age of the house and what topic it fell under. The topics were things such as detached, semi-detached and flats. We did it this way so that we didn’t have to walk around Dorking a second time. The following key was made up for the landuse map. We didn’t colour the final draft in till we had got back into school.
Residential
Commercial/business
Institution
Open space
Industry
Recreation
This key can be used when looking at the main landuse map. I choose the sections in the key because there the main sections that I need and it’s not too difficult to understand.
GOAD MAP
To do the Goad map we had to walk along the High street, West street and South street in our groups. We had to do this because we had to mark down in our green books the name of all the shops and what category they where. We had to do this so that when we got back to school we could copy up the results onto an A3 piece of paper, which would help us at the end with the final conclusion.
Whilst walking down the main roads in our group I took some pictures of some of the shops in the main high street. I did this because the photos would give some idea to the style that Dorking now has. By this I mean the type of shops if they’re old or modern. I did this because this would help me with the final conclusion.
The following key was used to do the shop transect.
Food and grocery
Entertainment (pubs and restaurants)
Clothes and shoes
Newsagents and arts
Hardware/electrical/homecare
Financial services
Other
I used this key because the different sections of the key are the most comment and are easy to deal with. By this I mean you can tell what the shops are straight away. This key is also on the main Goad map.
QUESTIONAIRE
The questionnaire was done in Dorking in St Martins Walk at around 13:00pm. We did it in St Martins Walk because this is one of the most popular places in Dorking. Also the majority of shops are near here. The market is also at the back of St Martins Walk. We did the questionnaire at 13:00pm because it was mid-afternoon and the majority of people who worked in Dorking would be on their lunch break. This meant we could get questionnaires filled in from workers as well as shoppers.
To do the questionnaire we stood in St Martins Walk and asked people to fill in one of the questionnaires. Once they had filled it in we would put the questionnaire away so that it didn’t get lost.
We did a questionnaire because the public could help us with our investigation. Also the information gathered would be a great help towards our projects.
When doing the questionnaire, we would wait every 4-5 minutes before we asked someone else. We did this so that we didn’t question the same person twice.
The following three questions are taken from the questionnaire.
Where have you come from today?
I asked this question because it would help me to draw up the sphere of influence of Dorking. Once all the questionnaires where collected in, I would gather the information and draw up the sphere of influence as well as a pie chart to show this.
When's market day?
I asked this question because it would help me conclude at the end of the project.
This question was asked because if there were a market in Dorking, the majority of people would know about it.
Will you come to Dorking again?
I asked this question because it would help me conclude at the end of the project. This question was asked because if the person being questioned says yes and they live close, we know locals come here. If the person is from Guilford and says no, then we know they where there on a one off.
Hypothesis
The further away from Dorking you go, the higher the house prices.
My first hypothesis was chosen because I thought the houses on the outskirts of Dorking would have a lot more land so they would be more expensive.
This theory was correct.
By visiting Dorking several times after the main day, I visited several estate agents and found out a rough idea of some of the house prices. These house prices included houses in Dorking’s CBD and on the outskirts of Dorking’s CBD.
Also the houses in Dorking’s CBD are well known for the high prices.
Dorking will have a small sphere of influence, as there are bigger towns around it.
I thought this hypothesis would prove to be right because if someone lives near Dorking and wants to go clothes shopping, they will go to a larger town such as Guildford or Kingston. Also Dorking doesn’t have a lot to offer and is really more for local people.
This theory was correct.
By visiting the council and completing a questionnaire, I found out there are people who live in the middle of Dorking and Guildford, i.e. Bookham, and still go to Dorking to shop. Reasons for this could be things such as its easier to park in Dorking compared with Guildford. Also the shopper might want something that is only sold in Dorking, such as antiques. The one other possible explanation is that the person being questioned is working in Dorking but lives nearer to Guildford.
The majority of people, who go to Dorking, go there to shop in the centre of town.
I thought this because the majority of shops are in the centre.
This theory was incorrect.
By completing a questionnaire, I found that at least 25% of people in Dorking who where shopping, where shopping on other streets such as West and East street.
Also a lot of people who where questioned were not even there to go to shops in the CBD, but they where there to get money out to go to shops on the outskirts of Dorking such as Home base and B and Q.
The centre of town, where the majority of shops are, will be busier compared to the market on a Friday afternoon around the time of 12 o’clock.
I thought this because the market is not very well known and the shops are a lot better known.
This theory was correct.
By doing a pedestrian count and a questionnaire, I found out that there were twice as many people shopping in the high street compared to the market. Also the people in the high street knew what they where going to buy in the shops where as the people going to the market where going to look around and buy something when they where there.
Land use map
The land use map shows us what the area around Dorking is used for. By looking at the land use map, we can tell that the majority of Dorking is open space (green), and residential (red). This tells us that Dorking is a town where lots of people live.
The commercial and business in Dorking is very low on the land use map and there not a lot of space with these two things in.
For example if you look at the land use map, we can tell the majority of the map is red and green. Other colours such as yellow and blue do not appear on the map as much. These colours represent recreation and industry.
Possible reasons for Dorking having a lot of residential space could mainly be because the town many years ago, might not have been built for people to shop there but built for people to live there and have the comfort of a small market so that they didn’t have to travel far for goods such as food and clothes. Now days, Dorking is more well known, to local people and people who live near, as more of a small shopping town. This means Dorking has changed a lot since the time of the 1800's. Obviously Dorking's market is not used as much as it used to be but the main focus has turnt to the shops in Dorking's CBD.
The market in Dorking is still around. This could be because people and Dorking's council still want the market to be in Dorking as it is a symbol of the history in Dorking.
Also by looking at the land use map we can tell that most of the houses are in access to the main town high street. By this I mean Dorking and the residential side of Dorking is very close and kind of crowded. By taking this point in to consideration, we can say that Dorking might have once been a large village only really to satisfy the needs of local people.
Dorking is not really a town that is needed by other towns and bigger company's as there are hardly any industry trades in Dorking or on our land use map.
Shop transect
The shop transect shows us all the shops in Dorking's CBD. By looking at this we can tell what category the shop is by looking at the key in the bottom right hand corner of the map.
As we look at the shop transect we can tell the majority of shops fall under the category of others. Others, includes shops such as video shops, book shops, libraries and other things like this. The main thing that others includes is all the antique shops on West street. As we know, Dorking is very well known for its antique shops.
If we look at the map overall, we can tell the second most common category is food and grocery. From this we can tell that Dorking is really for locals. We can sum up this conclusion because you don’t get people coming from Guilford to buy bread and milk. So because of this, Dorking is really for locals to get there weekly needs.
Again by looking at the shop transect, we can tell that there is not a lot of pubs and entertainment in the CBD. From this we can tell that Dorking is not really a town to attract people from all over but to just satisfy the needs of local people who live in and around Dorking.
I also found out that the majority of shops in Dorking, are really for people who live not to far away from the CBD. I found this information from books and the internet.
Gender pie chart
By looking at this pie chart we can tell that other 50% of the people questioned where female. Because of this result we must come up with possible reasons to as why the majority of people questioned where female.
The main reason could be that the question was taking in the afternoon and lots of females where going shopping. Also when one has to go shopping, its usually the female that goes to the shops to do al the shopping.
By looking at this graph we can also tell that there where not a lot of men being questioned. The main possible conclusion to this is that the men where at work.
Age pie chart
By looking at the age pie chart we can tell the majority of people questioned where around the age of 30 years old. The second most popular age is 20.The third most popular age is 40.
From this information we can tell that there where a lot of young people in Dorking when the question was taking. The only conclusion to this is that the majority of people questioned where on lunch break and they still work in and around Dorking.
Location pie chart
By looking at the pie chart we can tell that the majority of people questioned, lived in the area of Dorking. From the information gathered we could say that Dorking is really only a town for local people, and this is why the majority of people questioned where actually from Dorking.
Questionnaire
By looking at the questionnaire we can tell the questions asked where good because the answers where just going to be what I needed to know to come to a final conclusion.
The questions asked where good but could have hade more detail in them so that the answer was more specific.
Some of the questions asked where ok such as the main two questions.
- Is there a market in Dorking?
- When is market day?
These sort of questions would get a good positive answer. Also by looking at the questionnaires from the day, we can tell that people where willing to give some of there time to help us.