A Classification of Service Centres in England and Wales

Abstract

This paper is concerned with the study of the relationships between town and countryside in Engla d and Wales and in particular with tho e laces on which these relationships centre. Such places are referred to here as because they act as the centres where shopping, entertainment, cultural, professional and similar services are sought by people from the surrounding areas. The centres extend over a complete range, varying in status from places of a very limited local significance to those whose influence is regional and, in the case of London, national. The less important a centre the greater its dependence upon other more important service centres. Ranged each according to status the centres could be made to form an almost continuous list but it is more convenient to think of them as being organized into the ranks or successive orders of a hierarchy or gradation, though the divisions proposed may not always be clear cut or well defined. This concept has already been introduced by several geographers T but mention may be most usefully made here of the five orders suggested by F. H. W. Green; examples of places in the various orders are: first order?London; second order? Bristol, Newcastle; third order?Chelmsford, Taunton, Worcester, York; fourth order?Bridgwater, Ely, Ripon; fifth order?Local village centre. Such a classifica? tion or hierarchy of centres based on an analysis of public road passenger transport is set out in the present paper for England and Wales: all the places discussed are considered to be at least fourth order centres. Lack of definition between constituent orders or ranks is of course a feature of