6a - Rural Fieldwork Flashcards
Where was our rural fieldwork and which locations were we comparing?
In South Hams - Slapton & Chillington
What was our enquiry question/aim?
Why and how does deprivation vary in South Hams?
What were our three sub-hypothesis?
- Quality of Environment is be better in Slapton
- Service decline has been greater in Slapton
- Residents of Slapton will have a more positive perception of their village
Why did we choose these two locations?
Geographical differences:
Chillington was designated a key settlement in 2014 - a village with facilities, opportunities that would serve nearby locations
Has the A379 running through it & an area of outstanding natural beauty - designated for conservation
Slapton is not a key settlement & has a high proportion of 2nd homes with lower demands for service
Located within South Devon AONB controlling building and development
Both locations are easily accessible from our Slapton field centre and are safe locations
What was the hypothesis, method, presentation and conclusion for hypothesis 1?
Hypothesis: The quality of environment will be better in Slapton
Methods: Tranquility survey
Presentation: Chloropleth map showing tranquility scores for each location
Conclusion: Slapton was shown to be tranquil
Explain the method of hypothesis 1 and state the pros & cons
Tranquility survey (primary & quantitative data) - we counted + & - visual and sound factors from each location and scored these with each group visiting a different part of the village eg bird sounds, traffic
Pros:
Easily comparable since numerical data
Up to date since primary data
Judged various factors eg open space, traffic noise
Cons:
Scores are subjective eg bird sounds may be annoying to some
All factors are weighted evenly whilst people may value traffic noise over open space
We saw each location at different times in the day
Time consuming
Explain the presentation of hypothesis 1 and state the pros & cons
Choropleth map - Arc GIS used to produce this map where highest tranquility scores shown in dark red
Pros:
Easily comparable since it is a visual representation
Wasn’t time consuming
Cons:
It may be difficult to differentiate between the colours
One part of an area may be seen as one colour when in reality the area is not the same throughout
What was the hypothesis, method, presentation and conclusion for hypothesis 2?
Hypothesis: Service decline has been greater in Slapton
Methods: Functional change
Presentation: Compound bar graph
Conclusion: Slapton has the biggest decline (ageing pop, rural depop)
Explain the method of hypothesis 2 and state the pros & cons
Functional change (primary and secondary data, quantitative) - we counted the different land uses/services in areas of each village and compared these to the services existed in 1940s eg pubs, shops, medical facilities
Pros:
Secondary data allowed us to compare to inaccessible times
Saved time and money
Cons:
Accuracy unsure
We had no control over how it ran
They may have been carried out at different times of the day
Explain the presentation of hypothesis 2 graph and state the pros & cons
Compound bar graph - visual comparison of services present in 1940 and 2025
Pros:
Easily comparable
Different services can be compared eg pubs, medical facilities
Cons:
Perhaps a line would’ve been better
What was the hypothesis, method, presentation and conclusion for hypothesis 3?
Hypothesis: Residents of Slapton will have a more positive perception of their village
Methods: Epitome words collected
Presentation: Word clouds
Conclusion: Chillington had a better perception but this varied for each group
Explain the method of hypothesis 3 and state the pros & cons
Epitome words collected (primary, qualitative data) - we asked people in each settlement for their epitome words of what they like/dislike
Pros:
Gives us a contextual understanding of their views
Cons:
Very difficult to find people to survey
Subjectivity introduced since we asked at different times
Samples may not be representative of the whole population
Time costly
Explain the presentation of hypothesis 3 and state the pros & cons
Word clouds - modal words presented as larger in the world cloud
Pros:
Easy to analyse since biggest words showed most common results (Slapton - isolated, Chillington - modern)
27 different groups results used so less subjective
Extreme views have less of an impact
Cons:
Many words are synonyms but shown as different words eg peaceful, quiet, tranquil
Which settlement had the most rural deprivation?
Slapton had higher tranquility score, affected more by service decline (Chillington increased) and it was difficult to say which had better perceptions
Perhaps Chillington since for us it had better perceptions, but not for other groups
