Industry in Castleton
While on my visit I listed any industries I could find in the village and recorded evidence of them. In Castleton the following industries were present:
Tourism, Retail, Food and Drink, Accommodation, Electronics
As you can see, Tourism is a significant industry in Castleton and many of the other industries could be considered tourism related. Retail because my land use survey showed that many shops in the village are aimed at tourists, such as the gift shops in my land use survey. Food and Drink because many would probably do most of their business with tourists, such as the Tea Rooms and Accommodation because most people staying in Castleton at places such as the Bed and Breakfasts temporarily would be tourists. However the Electronics industry is not linked with tourism in any way. However there is only one small Electronics Factory called Thermal Industries in the village (see PHOTO 1) and it employs only 21 people so employs a small number of people compared to Tourism and the tourism-related industries.
Another significant thing about all the industries except Electronics is that they are all in the tertiary sector. This employment sector is typically well paid and hence the village is probably more economically developed than others in the Park that rely on farming or other primary sector activities. However all of these tertiary sector industries are aimed at tourists and there are few services and shops for locals in Castleton. I researched how far locals would have to travel to gain some of these services and found that some were far away:
Hope is 2.9km away from Castleton and Hathersage 9.4km, the Hope Valley College is 1.8km away and bus services are fragmented meaning unless you can drive a car it is very difficult to live in Castleton. There are also many other services essential to some people that are not situated in Castleton such as a Mosque or other religious places of worship and very few leisure facilities.
My industry survey has shown that Tourism and other Tourism-related industries are the most prominent in Castleton with others being only small and not providing much employment. However it seems that Castleton has almost no other industries apart from tourism, not even those essential to people living there such as Butchers or Bakers. This is strong evidence for Castleton’s function being to impress and attract tourists because it does not even have services for its own residents.
Tourist Attractions
I wanted to investigate Tourism in Castleton further by looking at its tourist attractions and how it seeks to promote them. The main tourist attractions in Castleton are:
- Peak Cavern (exhibited in PHOTO 5)
- Peveril Castle (it is situated on a cliff overlooking Castleton, pictured right)
- Walking Routes (there are many in and around Castleton, some are labelled on my map of the village)
- Events such as Craft Fairs
- Shops in the Village aimed at Tourists (such as the gift shops I discovered in my Land Use Survey)
- Restaurants and Cafés in the village
Please view photos 5,6 and 7 and read their annotations, as these are evidence of Castleton promoting itself as a tourist destination. The notice board in the photos is the first thing visitors see if they park in the main car park and is designed to entice visitors into spending as much time in the village as possible. Castleton is lucky to have so many tourist attractions because the income generated by them can allow other industries to flourish such as other related service industries and can often allow farmers to continue farming even though it is not a profitable occupation due to the income they generate from Tourism.
Quality of Environment Survey
As explained in my method I visited the 4 sites in Castleton and gave them scores ranging from –5 to 5 in 6 categories. The sites I visited are labelled B,C,D,E and F on the Castleton map. For each category, 0 is a neutral score meaning, for example, if a location scored 0 for the Industry category, then no industry is present at that location. The Castleton results were as follows:
The average total score for all the locations was 10.4 so Castleton obviously had a high quality of environment. Its total scores in the Litter/vandalism, Building Quality and Derelict Land categories support my assertion that Castleton’s function is to attract tourists. Castleton scores highly in all these categories because it needs to be visually appealing and hence cannot have poor building quality that would stop tourists from visiting or large areas of derelict land (Castleton actually has no derelict land, this is shown by its maximum score in this category.)
My Quality of Environment Survey supports my claim that Castleton is a tourist attraction that must be visually appealing because it scores highly in areas that are necessary in order to avoid repelling tourists. It also scored fairly lowly in Industry because it does not have a large variety of industries. Its high average total score also supports its visually appealing, tourist-attracting status.
Property Pricing Research
After my visit I researched the property prices for Castleton and Bradwell. I only researched estate agents based in Derbyshire and unfortunately, there were few properties on the market when I conducted my research. However I was able to find some information that could help me to draw a conclusion when viewed with the other evidence I have collected. The following properties were on the market in Castleton at the time of my research (31st October 2003):
2 Bedroom Terraced House: £139 950
3 Bedroom Semi-Detached House: £150 000
3 Bedroom Semi-Detached House: £169 950
3 Bedroom Semi-Detached House: £190 000
4 Bedroom Detached House: £450 000
These prices are useless on their own so I will compare them to the national average for each type of house I found on the market in Castleton.
This table clearly shows that the average price for each type of house is higher in Castleton than the National Average, particularly for detached properties. I know that the most desirable locations for homes are in prosperous, visually appealing areas and have good travel links. Castleton is prosperous due to tourism; it is very visually appealing as proven by my Quality of Environment Survey and the photographs I have taken. However it does not have particularly good travel links. It has no railway station, the nearest airport is 33.1km away by road and the nearest motorway junction is 23.4km away so any commute would be both long and strenuous, especially if more than one method of transport was involved, which would be inevitable if travelling by rail or air. This rules out Castleton as a commuter village but it reinforces the suggestion that Castleton is visually appealing and hence a good tourist destination.
Traffic Survey
I also conducted a traffic survey at the place marked location A on the Castleton Map I have drawn. This allowed me to discover the types of vehicles travelling through Castleton and how common each type of vehicle is. I also recorded the direction in which they were travelling and whether it was towards the centre of Castleton or away from it, towards Hope (see map). This will help me to further analyse the vehicles on the road in Castleton and give me some idea of their purpose for being in the village. I placed vehicles into categories and counted the number of them that passed in 10 minutes and recorded the direction in which they were travelling. My results are below.
These results are not surprising; I would have expected high numbers of hatchbacks and saloons because these are vehicles favoured by average-sized families with 2 or 3 children. Super minis are also commonly used as family cars especially when they contain younger children such as babies or toddlers so the presence of these types of vehicles travelling into Castleton suggests that families like to visit the village. This would be additional evidence for my prediction that Castleton is used to attract tourists. Castleton also has more cars going in than going out, which suggests it receives many visitors. The low number of people carriers surprised me however, as I would have expected there to be many larger groups visiting Castleton. Also, although I expected there to be a low number of works vehicles because I think Castleton’s function is to be a tourist attraction I found it surprising that none were present so I researched the issue of works vehicles in Castleton further. I found that there is a ridge overlooking Castleton called the Mam Tor. It is described by the Peak District National Park website as:
‘a great barrier rising between Castleton and Edale (also known as Lose Hill Ridge). The best viewpoints are from its cliffs. Almost four miles long, with a dilapidated stone wall running along its crest, the ridge may be reached from many paths, starting from almost any point.’
As can be seen on this map there is a road the west of Castleton called Winnats Pass.
Unfortunately when the industrial revolution began at the turn of the 20th century, and works vehicles pulled by horses needed to travel into Castleton and across the park, Winnats Pass was the only route, but was too steep, so in 1802 a new road was constructed. It was situated on the lower slopes of Mam Tor. The Mam Tor road was an A road and was often used by Works Vehicles from quarries and mines in the area, but was damaged by successive landslips. The authorities repaired some of the earlier slips but eventually they gave up and allowed the road to close in 1979.
I think it is possible that the PDNP (Peak District National Park) authorities may have deliberately not repaired the road, and that they may have made this sacrifice in order to keep works vehicles away and make Castleton a more popular tourist attraction. This would have been because if most visitors visit only a small area of the park (such as visiting Castleton instead of hiking over many square miles of it) then more of the PDNP can be left to develop naturally.
When sites are made to be desirable in this way, and people are encouraged to visit them, they are called honey pot sites, because tourists flock to them like bees to honey. I will re-visit this point later in my conclusion.
I multiplied my traffic count results by 6 in order to gain results for traffic flow per hour. These results are plotted on the graph overleaf.
The graph shows more clearly the large number of super minis that were leaving Castleton, they were the only type of vehicle that had more travelling out than in. This could be because they belonged to residents of Castleton who were travelling to places such as Hope or Hathersage to run daily errands. Otherwise it is clear that family-orientated cars are often travelling into Castleton because it is such a popular place for a family day out due to its tourist attractions, lack of works vehicles and abundance of tourist conveniences.
Conclusion
It is clear that the PDNP authorities seek to encourage tourists to visit Castleton. They have erected posters doing so (see Tourist Attraction photos.) They also made a decision not to repair a road that would have brought many ugly works vehicles through Castleton each day as I discovered during my traffic survey, yet another example of how they wish to preserve Castleton’s beauty and attract tourists. Furthermore, they have provided ample parking facilities to attract visitors, with specialist provision made for groups travelling by coach, and have tried to make Peak Cavern (otherwise known as ‘The Devil’s Arse) another reason to visit the village, building a car park for it (see Castleton Map I have drawn) and marketing it as an exciting experience, with a colourful logo and amusing nickname, as well as providing specialist tours and other such help with understanding the cavern. All of these are clear evidence of the local authorities’ desire to attract tourists to Castleton, probably for both financial gain and because it allows other parts of the PDNP that are not marketed so vigorously to flourish naturally without interference from tourists.
It is also clear that the PDNP authority have been successful in their attempts to attract tourists to Castleton. Many family-designed cars travel into Castleton and it has many tourist conveniences, such as gift shops, tearooms and accommodation for them when they arrive. The tourism industry is also clearly fuelling other industries such as retail. The population of Castleton have been able to preserve a good quality of environment (see Quality of Environment Survey section) and consequently have property prices that are above the national average as well as a picturesque environment in which to live. The most significant piece of evidence is the presence of large car parks, tourist conveniences (especially accommodation) and other things created specifically for tourists, because they would not be present if they were not needed.
In conclusion, it is clear that Castleton has become, partly due to its favourable scenery and easy-to-visit position, and partly due to the actions of PDNP Authority, a honey pot site, a place that is visited by most people that come to the area and that people are encouraged to visit. And consequently areas of natural wilderness are maintained around the village because most people visit Castleton rather than the surrounding countryside. Its function is to attract visitors for the benefit of financial gain and the preservation of the surrounding countryside and to welcome those visitors and provide services for them.
