Victoria Johnson

What type of settlement is Wallington?

By Victoria Johnson, 7 Bronte

2011

Contents
Aim Introduction History of Wallington Changes Transport Schools Open Spaces Shops Jobs Health Location of Wallington Sketch Map of a Fraction of Wallington Key Method Transect of Wallington High Street Bar Chart of Shops Hierarchy Sketch Map of Sainsbury s Analysis Transect Field Sketch Population History Population Conclusion Evaluations & Limitations 2 2 2 2 3 3 3 3 3 3 4 5 6 7 8+9 10 11 12 13 13 13 14 14 14 14

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Aim In this investigation we are going to find out what type of settlement Wallington is. A settlement is a place where people live. We need to find out whether Wallington is a hamlet, village, town or a city. My hypothesis is that Wallington is a town because a hamlet does not have a church and Wallington has many, a village does not have as many shops as Wallington .Wallington is not big enough to be a city as it must have a certain number of people and a cathedral, like London or Manchester. Introduction History of Wallington Source www.sutton.gov.uk (trusted source) The Doomsday Book in 1086 said Wallington had 11 plough teams, which was a lot for its size (822 acres). Also recorded in the Doomsday Book, but no one knows where they were located. However, the mill upstream of Wallington Bridge was used for making pape r in 1771. By the mid 19 th century, it had become a flour mill, but by the end of the century it had reverted back to a paper mill.

Changes The Croydon to Epsom railway line was opened in 1847 and this made Wallington, because it was close to London, ripe for property development. When World War 1 broke out ion 1914. Wallington was advancing rapidly across the fields south of Stafford Road. Th e house I live in, for example, was built in the early 1900s. Development continued in the 1920s and 1930 when the large country houses were demolished and the town hall, which helps prove my theory that Wallington is a town, was built in 1935 with the lib rary being added a year later.

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Transport Wallington is well served by buses, trains, coaches and good road links. Trains go to London and Croydon or south to Epsom, Guildford and Sutton, therefore the working population has a good choice of transport to get to work. Schools There are many good schools in the area, which attracts people to the areas. For example, Wallington Girls and Wallington Boys, which opened in 1927. There are some good primary schools too. For example, Bandon Hill to the south of the town. Open Spaces There are a number of open spaces including Beddington Park to the north of the town and Mellows Park to the south. Other open spaces nearby are Carshalton Park and Roundshaw Park. Shops Wallington has a number of good shops, Sainsbu rys, Tesco Express, Lidl, Iceland, Boots and WH Smith. as well as Peacocks and Superdrug. It has a few pubs and cafes including Caf Nero. I used to live in Coulsdon and I can say that Wallington has far better shops than there, Jobs I mentioned this closeness to London in the transport section. M y father works in London and I know that if it were difficult to get there, we would probably live elsewhere. There are jobs in Wallington, for example in the shops mentioned above. Sutton and Croydon also have a number of places to work. Health Care A new medical centre is being built to the south of the town and Wallington is also not far away from a large hospital, St Helier.

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Method: Transect: I am going to go onto Google Streetview and do a virtual tour of the High Street. I will colour code for each section and then tally them. I am using this to see the amount of services in Wallington High Street so I can compare it to other services. I will conduct this on Wallington High Street and I hope to find out that Wallington is a town, due to the services it has. The problems that I faced were that this is not the whole of Wallington and some of the shops are shut down. Field Sketch: I am going to find a service that is not in villages or hamlets and sketch it. I am going to see what services a town has that any other settlement does or doesn t in order to prove that Wallington is a town due to the services it has. The problems I faced were not to include loads of detail, but to make it clear enough for people to realise what it is. Internet Research: I will go onto to the internet and Google the population of Wallington and compare it to others online. I am using this to see if it h as as large population as a city, or as small as a hamlet or the same as a town. I will be conducting this by internet research. I will be doing it to prove that Wallington is a town due to the population it has and compare it to how it has gone up/down during the years. The problems I faced were that it is hard to find the population of just Wallington, so I added up Wallington North and Wallington South.

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Data representation:

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Analysis: Transect: My transect of Wallington High Street (from the railway to Stafford Road ) shows that the most shops were banks and charity shops. The least were post offices, dry cleaners, newsagents, etc. This proves that Wallington is a town because on the small section of the High Street that we did I counted 56 shops. It also has a large supermarket, many cafs, estate agents and clothes shops, which are shops you would mainly only have in a town. It is not a city because it does not have a cathedral or an airport. Neither is it a village or a hamlet because it has a High Street and a big s upermarket. The geographical pattern is that all the restaurants and pubs are on the north, most the charity shops and estate agents are on the West and all the bakeries are on the East. Field Sketch: The shop in Wallington is described as a superstore and just it being there supports my theory that Wallington is a town. Sainsbury s are a very big supermarket chain and they wouldn t have built such a large store unless there was a large local population nearby able to use it. The shop is well positioned on the corner of Wallington High Street and Stafford Road., so it is easy to get to by car and there is a bus stop right outside the shop. Another thing that supports my view that Wallington is a town is that there are a lot of car parking spaces, 395 in total spread over 3 floors. I don t think Sainsbury s would have allocated so many if it was not a town. The shop also has a lot of job opportunities for people that live nearby.

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Population history I have looked at 2 sources for this Wikipedia, a less reliable source and www.sutton.gov.uk , which as the website of Sutton council is reliable for this information. The information below is for the borough of Beddington and Wallingt on, which was abolished in 1965. Year 1921 1931 1961 Sutton.gov population 14322 26251 32603 Wikipedia population 16451 26328 32603

Population The Sutton.gov.uk details the population of Wallington in 1981 as 18,100 and by 1991, this had grown to 18,600. As of 2001, the population was still around 18,600. It will be interesting to see what happens after this year s census. Conclusion I have found my hypothesis to be correct - that Wallington is a town. I know this because of the size of the population, the services and the infrastructure. Evaluation and Limitations I did my research, in order to find things like the population, well. I struggled with the research on Sainsbury s. I can improve my work by making my data clearer.

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