Day 02: 1 June 20

 Day 02: 1 June 2014

We started the day with a hearty breakfast at McDonalds. Not the healthiest choice, but something warm for our stomachs was definitely comforting on a chilly morning.

Yummy!

We took about an hour before reaching Nettlecombe Court FSC. A rustic building and a church greeted us. As our tutors, Harry and Anelma, showed us around and briefed us on the routines and safety procedures. We found out that this was previously a boarding school built in 1967!

Nettlecombe Field Studies Centre

With Anelma

With Harry

Lunch in the open!

After lunch, we headed to Dunster, to start our field study on Tourism. Dunster was a Medieval Village, similar to Stratford.  The focus of the study was to examine what the role of tourism in Dunster was and how tourism has influenced the place.  This was done by examining the environmental impact through conducting bi-polar surveys, counting pedestrians and vehicles in the area and interviewing the locals and tourists on site.

At Dunster

Making sure we are on the right track before heading out to investigate!

Interviewing a tourist

Using Google Earth and GE Graph to Collate our Data

Once we were done with the collection of data, we headed back to FSC to collate and analyse our findings.  We learnt how to use GE Graph to represent our collected data on Google Earth. After which, we had to account for how tourism has impacted Dunster, linking to the concept of Change.

So what was our conclusion? Similar to Stratford, there are both positive and negative impacts of Tourism in Dunster. Tourism has influenced Dunster to change over time as seen from the function and architecture of the place. Majority of the buildings are well-preserved to maintain the quality as a medieval village, and many businesses are able to flourish from the amount of tourists visiting. However, most of the shops available around the village are mainly for tourists’ enjoyment, and not so much to cater to the locals of Dunster. For example, a local said that there was only one grocer in the whole village.

It was a tiring but enriching day for all of us! We look forward to another exciting day of fieldwork! J