Geography revsion

• This coast is made of different rocks, some hard, some soft. Once upon time it was straight. Just look at it now!
• Hurst Spit


  A shingle bank found on the south coast
• Hurst Spit is located in the county of Hampshire
• At the end of the spit is Hurst Castle, originally built on the orders of Henry VIII, and much enlarged during the 19th century
• The spit extends for 1.4 miles from the shore into the Solent towards the Isle of Wight
• The spit formed from loose flint pebbles which had been eroded from the cliffs further west
• Hurst Spit supports important communities of plants and wildlife
• The formation of a spit

  1. Deposition

  2. Prevailing wind blows at an angle to the coastline, resulting in longshore drift

  3. Material is deposited

  4. Spit grows and develops a hook if the wind direction changes further out

  5. Waves cannot get past a spit, which creates a sheltered area where silt is deposited and mud flats or saltmarshes form
• Happisburgh is a village in the county of Norfolk
• Happisburgh became a site of national archaeological importance in 2010 when flint tools over 800,000 years old were unearthed. This is the oldest evidence of human occupation anywhere in the UK
• The civil parish of Happisburgh has an area of 11 km2 although this is declining due to cliff erosion
• There are 1,372 people living in 607 households in Happisburgh
• Sea defences were built in 1959 to stop the tide from eating away at the coast but changes in government policy have led to this being discontinued
• The railway had linked Blackpool to Manchester and the other densely populated textile towns of Lancashire by the middle of the 19th century
• Factory workers poured into Blackpool on Bank Holidays
• After the introduction of paid annual holidays, they spent a week there. They went every year!
• Blackpool already had a sandy beach which stretched for miles
• By 1900, the tourist infrastructure of promenade, piers, big hotels and the Tower were all in place in Blackpool
• Growth was more or less continuous until 1960 in Blackpool
• A post-war boom had led to an increase in personal wealth
• But in the 1970s, the package tour grew in popularity, and people were attracted by cheap holidays to Mediterranean resorts
• Between 1990 and 1999, visitor numbers dropped from 17 million to 11 million in Blackpool
• 1,000 hotels closed down in Blackpool
• 300 holiday flats were closed in Blackpool
• Average hotel occupancy rates fell to as low as 25% in Blackpool
• Blackpool was not exciting existing customers, nor was it attracting new customers
• By 2000, some bed-and-breakfast prices had fallen to just £10 per night in Blackpool. This left no money for investment in improvements
• A downward spiral of decline begun, and places looked more and more run-down in Blackpool
• Strategies For Solving the Problems

  1. Smarten up popular tourist areas

  2. Old buildings have been pulled down

  3. Car parks have been landscaped

  4. Beaches have been cleaned

  5. Beach facilities have been improved
• £10 million is being spent on the 'Blackpool Illuminations'
• Off-season events, such as conferences and festivals, are being promoted in Blackpool
• A new attraction, Waterworld, opened in 2006 in Blackpool, and there are plans to make more covered ways between main tourist attractions and around the shops
• Perhaps the day of the British seaside resort has passed
• The number of people visiting Blackpool continues to fall
• The weather seems to be getting more and more unreliable
• There are high rates of unemployment in Blackpool and many areas of deprivation
• The super-casino, which Blackpool so desperately wanted, was awarded to Manchester (but then later scrapped!)