SITE AND SITUATION

Site and situation– dry and wet point, aspect, shelter, defence, resources and communications.
Many siting factors important in the past are now no longer important due to technological change. Settlements with a favourable site especially in respect of communications eg. gap towns, route centres and bridging points often grew into trading centres.

Know small-scale studies to illustrate the past importance of these factors eg. Glastonbury ( aspect - on South facing slope) Ely (dry point site - on higher ground in a low lying area), Edinburgh ( defence point - castle on hill) Durham (on river Wear meander = wet point site, meander bend = good defence site, possibly gap town between the hills) and GLOUCESTER - know this well!. Another settlement that you could describe the site and settlement of is Bourton-on-the-Water

Many settlements show the importance of more than one factor. You should think about how many of these are insignificant today and settlements may be built almost anywhere if the economic argument is strong enough - again, Bourton-on-the-Water is a good example of this. What is its function today??

HOW MUCH DO YOU KNOW?

What is the difference between site and situation?

What does wet and dry site mean?

What is aspect?

How can a settlement be sheltered?

How did old settlements defend themselves?

What resources did (and do) settlements have?

What do we mean by communications?

GLOUCESTER DOCKS