Lesson video

Hello, Mrs. Lomas here.

I am a primary school teacher who loves geography.

I was gonna say primary school geographer, which I guess is true as well.

So I'm very excited to be sharing your geography lesson with you today.

So let's find out what we're going to do, shall we? So today we're going to be looking at our local town.

I'm going to do an example of one that's local to me, and then you have the option of switching that out for your local town when you do your activities.

And this is part of our settlements unit, where do people live and why? So let's find out what the outcome is for today.

By the end of today's lesson, you will be able to use ordinance survey maps to identify some reasons that your local town grew and compare it to another town that you know.

We have some key words today.

Market town, port, Industrial Revolution, factories, similarities and differences.

So let's try my turn your turn first, okay? Market town, port, Industrial Revolution, factories, similarities and differences.

Well done.

Let's find out what these words mean, shall we? A market town has a regular public market.

A port is a place on a coast, river, or lake where boats can stop to upload people or cargo.

The Industrial Revolution was a period of time where there was a large-scale change from making goods by hand to using machines.

Factories are large buildings where machines are used to manufacture goods.

Similarities and differences are the things that are the same or different when compared with another.

So keep an eye out for those keywords in today's lesson.

Today's lesson is split into two parts.

What caused early settlements to grow, and why did our local settlement grow? We are going to start off with what caused early settlements to grow.

Over the last few lessons, we have seen how settlements become developed as they grow and change.

But what are the reasons for this growth? There are many reasons why settlements developed and where they did.

Without looking at the history of a place, it is impossible to see how it has developed and changed over time.

And here we can see an old map from the 1800s and a modern-day OS map of the same settlement.

Until the late 18th century, Britain continued to be more of a rural economy than an urban one.

Many settlements were essentially farming communities, sometimes with small local industries based on wool, meat, iron work, and looking after livestock.

So why did some of these villages begin to grow into towns? Each town has developed for a reason.

Maybe as a centre for buying and selling local goods, such as a market town.

Welshpool in Powys, Wales, was recorded as having a market as early as 1252.

Locals would trade in wool, crops, and livestock with people who came from the surrounding area.

This attracted people to come and live in the village, and it eventually grew into a town with a population of over 5,000.

There is still a market town in Welshpool today.

So let's do a little check, shall we? What do geographers call a centre for buying and selling local goods with a regular public market? Is it A, shopping centre? B, retail village, or C, market town? So one more time.

What do geographers call a centre for buying and selling local goods with a regular public market? A, shopping centre, B, retail village, or C, market town? Pause the video, have a go, and then come back and check your answer.

How did you get on? If you said that it was C, a market town, you would be correct.

Well done.

Other settlements owe their early growth to their location on the coast as holiday resorts, ports, or fishing harbours.

After being settled by the Romans in 43 CE, Southampton on the south coast of England soon developed into a port trading wool and hides from the surrounding areas and importing wine from France during the Middle Ages, which is 500 CE to 1,500 CE.

And we can see a modern-day map of Southampton there.

And you can see from that map, can't you, that Southampton has eventually grown into a city, and today, newer manufacturers have joined the port's traditional industries of shipbuilding and repairing, grain milling, and tobacco processing.

In 2022, it was the fifth major port, handling over 30 million tonnes of traffic.

And here we can see an aerial shot or a photograph from the sky of Southampton.

Some places developed because of the goods that they produced.

Much of Cramlington's growth during the 1800s was due to its location on rich coal seams. On this map from the 1890s, mines or collieries can be seen all over the area.

These mines needed workers, and consequently, people settled in Cramlington for jobs.

Pause the video and see how many collieries you can see on this map.

Do you think you spotted them all? There you go.

So I can see one, two, three, four, five, six, and eight collieries, which is quite a lot, isn't it? So a lot of people must have had to move there to work in those collieries or mines.

Whatever their history, settlements all have a legacy of special buildings and open spaces which make them distinctive even in their own region, and all are changing.

Right, let's do a check, shall we? Which of these are reasons why a settlement might develop and grow? A, because of the goods they produced, B, their location on steep, rocky land, C, their location at the coast, D, because they are a centre for buying and selling local goods.

So again, which of these are reasons why a settlement might develop and grow? And you can choose more than one.

A, because of the goods they produced, B, their location on steep, rocky land, C, their location at the coast, or D, because they are a centre for buying and selling local goods.

Remember, you can pick more than one.

Pause the video, have a go, and come back and check your answers when you're ready.

How did you get on? If you'd said that A, because of the goods they produced, you would be correct, and C, their location at the coast, and D, because they are a centre for buying and selling local goods.

Well done if you've got all of them, and well done if you just got one or two as well.

This is a map of Stonehaven, which is a coastal town in Scotland.

Look carefully at this map.

What do you think is the main reason Stonehaven in Scotland grew and developed from an early settlement? Pause the video, have a look, have a class discussion, and come back when you're ready to check.

How did you get on? What did you say? You may have suggested that it developed as a tourist resort or as a port for importing and exporting goods.

These would've been great suggestions, but it was fishing.

Until the 1900s, Stonehaven was an important fishing port on the east coast of Scotland.

In its heyday, the harbour was home to around 200 fishing boats, and you can see where the harbour is there on the map.

The main catch was herring.

And we can see clues of this past in our map if you look closely at the harbour.

It is a coastal site with a harbour and buildings surrounding it.

Breakwaters have been built to protect the natural harbour from the waves, and beacons light the barriers to guide in the boats.

And you can also see that here in the photograph of the harbour as well.

The Industrial Revolution was a time when the number of factories increased.

Many towns grew because products, like cotton, were made in the factories there.

These towns grew because of their local raw materials.

These raw materials were mined and included coal, iron ore, tin, and lead.

Settlement patterns in England changed because of the Industrial Revolution.

People moved from their villages to new industrial towns to provide workers for all of the new factories, mines, and ports being built throughout the country.

So they might have once lived somewhere that looked like this and then moved to somewhere that looked more like this during the Industrial Revolution.

The Industrial Revolution had a massive impact on the growth of towns.

In 1700, Manchester was a small market town with a population of fewer than 10,000.

By the end of the century, it had grown almost tenfold to 89,000 people and kept on growing.

In 1851, it was 400,000, and by 1901, its population stood at around 700,000.

Only London and Glasgow were greater in size.

And we know that Manchester's quite large, don't we? Because there's enough space for two different football teams and all their supporters, so it must be quite a big city now.

Because settlements like Manchester grew at an incredibly fast rate, often without any planning control, this led to the rapid growth of large slum neighbourhoods in these towns.

Overcrowding of multiple families into insufficient space and the poor quality of construction and sanitation in the rapidly built back-to-back houses was an issue in many industrial cities and towns.

In stark contrast, landowners, mill owners, and wealthy industrialists built large, well-constructed houses or villas in good town locations, many of which still characterise our towns today.

So let's do a quick check, shall we? What effect did the Industrial Revolution have on the settlement of Manchester? A, it grew enormously, B, it stayed the same, or C, it got smaller.

So let's try that one more time, shall we? What effect did the Industrial Revolution have on the settlement of Manchester? A, it grew enormously, B, it stayed the same, or C, it got smaller.

Pause the video, collect your answers, and come back when you're ready to check.

How did you get on? If you said that Manchester grew enormously, so A, you would be correct.

Well done.

Remember that up to the end of the 1700s, Britain was a rural economy.

Many settlements were farming communities.

By 1900, 75% of the British population lived in urban areas.

This is three quarters of the whole population, a huge change from the rural 1700s.

Let's do another check.

True or false? The Industrial Revolution changed settlement patterns dramatically.

Is that true or false? So can you tell me if this is true or false? The Industrial Revolution changed settlement patterns dramatically.

Choose whether this is true or false.

You can pause the video, collect your answers as a class, and come back when you're ready to check.

How did you get on? If you said that this was true, you would be correct.

Well done.

Now I want you to justify the answer using either A, people moved from towns to villages to work as farmers, or B, people moved from villages to new industrial towns and cities to work.

So I want you to justify the true answer using either A, people moved from towns to villages to work as farmers, or B, people moved from villages to new industrial towns and cities to work.

Pause the video, have a class discussion, get your answers together, and come back when you're ready.

How did you get on? If you said that it was B, people moved from villages to new industrial towns and cities to work, you would be correct.

Well done.

So let's have a look at task A.

We are looking at the question, why did early settlements grow from villages to towns and cities? You are going to explain your answer to your geography buddy using this sentence starter.

Early settlements grew because.

And I want you to think of four reasons why the settlements grew and changed.

So you are going to answer this question, why did early settlements grow from villages to towns and cities? I want you to explain your answer to your geography body using this sentence starter.

Early settlements grew because, and I want you to think of four reasons why settlements grew and changed.

If you want to make some notes on a whiteboard, I'm sure that would be absolutely fine right now.

Pause the video, have a go at the task, and then when you're ready, come back and we'll have a look at some ideas I've had.

How did you get on? These were four ideas I came up with.

Number one, early settlements grew because of the goods they produced, like coal from Cramlington.

Number two, some grew because they were a centre for buying and selling local goods, like market towns.

Number three, some settlements by the coast grew into holiday resorts, ports, or fishing harbours because of their location.

And number four, lots of towns, like Manchester, grew into cities because of factories built during the Industrial Revolution.

If you want to pause the video and just talk about any you missed or any that you did add in, or any extras that you thought of, now is the time to do it.

So we've had a look at what caused early settlements to grow, so now let's have a look at why did our local settlement grow.

In the previous lesson, we looked at how our local town had changed and developed.

Today, we are going to think about the reason it has grown where it has.

We will be using two OS maps of Cramlington to try and find evidence for its growth on this site, one modern and one from the 1890s.

At first, Cramlington grew and developed because of the goods that it produced, which was coal.

And we can see this evidence on the map as collieries.

Collieries even, my apologies.

And we can see those on the old map here.

Cramlington was also on a crossroad and near a station, and we can see this evidence on the map as roads and stations.

Cramlington is surrounded by flatland, which is good for farming, and we can see this evidence on the map with the names of the farms. If you want to pause the video and have a closer look here, you can.

What other reasons are there to explain why a place may grow or change? I want you to talk to your geography buddy and try to think of 10 different reasons.

For example, can you remember when we talked about why early settlements have been established? And we noticed that those with a bridging point would have more passes by and therefore trade.

So, I want you to talk to your geography buddy and try and think of 10 different reasons why a place may grow or change.

Don't worry if you can't think of 10, try to think of as many as you can.

Pause the video, gather your ideas, and then come back when you're ready.

Did you think of any of these reasons? Some settlements grow because there is a castle on the site.

This would've offered jobs, protection, and eventually tourism.

Mining natural resources.

Settlements on coal seams or rich oil deposits would grow as more miners were required to dig up the resources.

If there was a historic place of worship, like an abbey or cathedral, this would've originally been a good site for trading and would've offered some form of protection.

Eventually, this might be a place of interest to tourists.

Crossroads have lots of through traffic and were easily accessible.

People trading would've settled here as it was easier to sell their produce.

Today, being on an efficient road or rail network means commuting to a place of work is much quicker.

If the settlement had a bridging point, it would've offered both protection from the river and ease of movement to other ideas.

Settlements on a navigable river or near sea harbours would've grown as they service the transport of people.

In addition, if that harbour was a successful fishing port, then people would've caught and traded fish.

Ships carrying goods to trade and sell in other places dock in ports near the sea.

Many people would be needed to sustain this industry, so settlements would've developed in these locations.

As we have found out, many villages grew into towns and then cities as a result of the Industrial Revolution.

Many people migrated to these places to receive better pay in the factories.

As we have also seen in this lesson, market towns grow as people move there to be closer to a market to sell their goods.

Areas with flatter, fertile soil or with grassland for livestock will develop as people settle in agricultural communities.

Some settlements grow as a result of housing being required for larger areas nearby.

And finally, some settlements, especially coastal areas, develop due to tourists visiting and staying in either hotels or campsites.

Did you think of any of these reasons? Did you have any others that you thought of? Maybe even some that are applicable to your own hometown? Feel free to add those ones to the list.

We're also going to be using our map-reading skills to identify reasons why another town that we know has developed where it did.

This is Tynemouth, in North Tyneside.

You can use a map of your local area if you want.

Again, we'll be using clues from these maps to help us identify reasons for its growth.

And this is Tynemouth back in the 1890s.

You are going to use the labels to complete the Venn diagram, comparing your local town to another town you know, and you have some extra empty boxes there if you want to add in any good ones that you came up with that we don't already have on there.

So any that just your town have, you stick on that side of the circle.

Any in another town that you know, you stick in that part of the circle.

And if they have both, they go in the middle part of the circle, okay? If they're not applicable to either town, they go around the outside.

Please make sure you write the names of the towns down on the lines underneath the Venn diagram.

So have a go at this task, sort the labels into the correct places on the Venn diagram, and when you're finished, come back, and you can have a look at the one that I did for the two towns we've been looking at today.

So when comparing the reasons for the original growth of Cramlington and Tynemouth, we had to look for clues on our maps.

Cramlington is surrounded by collieries.

Collieries.

I will get that word right by the end of the lesson.

Cramlington is surrounded by collieries on the 1890s maps and is at the crossroads of several main roads.

On the same map, we could see lots of farms surrounding the area as there is flat land, which is good for farming.

In 1964, it was established as a new town with an industrial area.

While this was much later than the Industrial Revolution, factories are still one of the reasons why Cramlington is as large as it is today.

Tynemouth, on the other hand, grew originally because of its priory and castle.

The whole headland was fortified and used for many years as a military base.

However, it was also an important port.

In addition to ferries taking people across the River Tyne because it was too wide to be bridged at its mouth, it was also a fishing port and a trading port, taking coal mined in the region to other areas.

Both Cramlington and Tynemouth have places of worship, which would've encouraged people to settle nearby.

And neither town developed because of market towns, tourism, or bridging points.

How did you get on with your towns? Did you all come up with the same ideas, or did some people think a little differently than you? If you need to make any amendments on your Venn diagrams, now is your chance to pause the video and have a go.

So here's a short summary about our local town.

Some early settlements grew from villages into towns and cities through trade or because of the goods they produced.

During the Industrial Revolution, some towns and villages grew into cities.

OS maps and aerial photographs reveal clues about why towns have grown and developed.

Geographers compare places by analysing their similarities and differences.

Well done, everybody.

You worked really hard today.

I really felt like a geographer today, using all those clues to work out why things have changed over time.

I very much enjoyed it.

I hope you did as well.

And I hope you learnt maybe something new about your local area that you didn't know before.

Don't forget to have a go at the exit quiz just in case there's anything you need to recap before next lesson.

And it's also a great way to show off how much you've learned this lesson, and I will see you in our next lesson.

Bye.