These 3 hypothesis’s are my targets which I aim to enforce later in my coursework when I create my own development plan which will be realistic.
Key Characteristics and features of the area
Purbeck is popular with families especially as it is near Bournemouth which is also a Tourist attraction with all the usual seaside resort activities. Around the area there are pleasant places to have tea and lunches. It is possible to take part in lots of different water sports including windsurfing, diving, snorkelling, skiing and jet skiing.
Other sites of interest are Corfe Castle (medieval ruins), Lulworth Cove, Poole Harbour, Studland Bay and Durlsworth Country Park. There is also a steam railway and an inland lake.
With so many activities to do, Purbeck is a huge recommendation as it has relaxing, peaceful breaks for couples or families.
The best way to get there is by train and then bus from Bournemouth or if you are driving you can go over the neck of the peninsula down to Swanage or catch the car ferry from Poole. It is possible to walk from Bournemouth or Poole but it will take you most of the day which can get strenuous.
The above diagram shows how the bays and headlands have been formed due to the different types of rocks.
In the diagram you can see the tertiary sands, clay rocks and Wealden clay rocks are the less resistant rocks and the Portland and Purbeck limestone is the resistant rock. Therefore when the waves hit the coast the resistant rocks; tertiary sands, clay rocks and Wealden clay rocks will not erode, whereas the less resistant ones will, as they are softer and are not as hard and strong enough like the others. The type of rocks which make up the isle of purbeck are Portland limestone, Chalk, Wealden clay & sands, Gault & Greensand, Bagshot beds, Kimmeridge clay,Purbeck limestone and London clay & reading beds
The diagram to the right shows the formations of headland and bays, which form along the coastline. Where the area is known to have either resistant or less resistant rock. The diagrams show how the waves erode the rock to eventually form bays. The resistant rock cannot be worn away as fast therefore headlands are left protruding in the sea.
The Blue Pool is located in the area of Wealden clay and also a result of human activity. As it was once a clay mine, gradually the demand for clay decreased and therefore that meant so did the clay mine. After the clay mine was no longer in use, this meant that in the centre a large empty crater was left in the woodland area. As time progressed the empty crater started to fill with rainwater, and started to look like a lake. This lake started to attract tourists due to the amazing colour feature caused by light diffracting from particles of clay.
Tourism
The Blue Pool has various types of facilities to offer everyone apart
from the view of the pool itself. It offers toilets facilities, a
teahouse, a children's play area, a large car park, a plant centre and
a viewpoint. Due to the facilities available at the site different
types of people are attracted to the site, this includes dog walkers,
the elderly, and those who just want to relax.
For the investigation I carried out a survey to find out how many tourists would pass this location in a 10 minute slot, I carried out my survey at the car park by the entrance. The amount of tourists who passed the location in a 10 minute slot were 20 Tourists I then worked out how much tourist’s that would come up to per year and came to a final answer of 50,000 Tourists per year. This gives me the idea that blue pool is quite a popular Tourist resort so far in this investigation. Throughout the survey I also had to ask a visitor why they went to this tourist resort and they gave these key points,
- For Relaxation/Children
- History/Education
-
Peace and Quiet
- Family Resort
This is the Map of Blue Pool which shows the basic facilities within the resort.
Old Harry is the name given to the chalk stack that can be found below the cliffs at Ballard. Many of the local booklets and tourist information shows Old Harry as the large rock on the end of the ridge and the small stack next to it as Old Harrys wife. In actual fact Old Harry is a smaller rock further to the south of the large rocks near the Pinical.
Old Harry has been around for well over 200 years where as the larger rock only broke away from the cliff more recently. Old Harrys wife used to stand next to Old Harry but collapsed around 50 years ago and can only be seen at very low spring tides just below the surface.
Before the Old Harry Rocks were formed; the foreland was protruding into the sea, which meant that the sea in time wore away the rocks. As the sea attacked the weak points of the rocks i.e. the cracks it created small caves. Eventually these caves started to erode all the way through leaving natural looking arches. Gradually these arches started to become weak and also eroded leaving stacks from the collapsed roofs of the arches.
- The sea firstly attacks the weak points in the foreland and
creates caves
2. The caves begin to erode all the way through forming natural
arches
3. The roofs of the arches begin to collapse due to the constant
wave action, and go on to form stacks
Observations at Old Harry Rocks
As I was at the site I noticed that there a frequent amount of people and those handful of people were elderly and came later in the day, around 12:00pm. I also noticed that there were young adults riding there mountain bikes around the old harry rocks. This tells me that young people visit old harry not to just relax and enjoy the scenery but to also get fit as well. As I mentioned before there were also elderly people at old harry who enjoy the site for peace and harmony and to relax. This is a clear reason why Tourists would want to visit old harry rocks.
