Site and Situation of Settlements

Having delved into the world that is my work books from GCSE Geography, I have discovered that the site and situation of settlements was covered in much more detail, with many more possibilities for illustrations, than I have depicted it as in my ‘changes to rural settlements’ blog post. Hence, I will go into it in more detail (with a little help from GCSE year old me!).

As mentioned in the ‘rural characteristics’ blog, a ‘site’ is the land on which a settlement is built, while the ‘situation’ is the position in the landscape in relation to other settlement and landscape features. Within the ‘rural characteristics’ blog, I gave a number of things which relate to the site and situation of settlements. These can be analysed in current settlements, or also by looking at a drawing of Ancient Britain and comparing the situations of various places to choose the best site.

In my GCSE workbook I then went on to look at the sites of different modern day settlements. Firstly the ‘Gap Towns’, these are towns which have been built in between or at the entrance to the lowland gap in the hills. They benefit from being at the focus of travel routes.

Below is a sketch of the Mole Gap. This shows Dorking and Leatherhead at the entrances to the lowland hills. 

The second gap town is Lincoln, which lies in between the lowland gap in the hills. Another famous example is Corfe Castle which lies in the gap between two hills.

Above: Corfe Castle, seen standing proud in the gap between two hills (apologies for my camera work almost cutting off the hill on the left hand side!). Photo taken in 2009 after restoration had been completed on the Castle.

A River settlement is the next type of site to look at. An example can be seen below. A supply of water is possibly the single most important factor to consider when choosing a site. Rivers provide a clean source of drinking water, the opportunity to catch fish and also good transport links. Most of the world’s largest cities are located on rivers, especially at the point where they reach the sea, as in the case of our example below.

The fourth and final site is a Fenline site, which can be seen below. The Fens are nutrient rich and so good for agriculture.

The situation of a settlement is important in determining whether it grows to become a city or stays as a town, village or hamlet. Birmingham is in a good situation as it has good road and rail links and is in the centre of the country, so easily accessible from everywhere. This is also why London grew up to be such a big city: good transport links, water availability and level sites to build on.

References

http://www.s-cool.co.uk/gcse/geography/settlements/revise-it/site-and-situation