What are settlements?

High up in my airship I can look down and see where people have built places to live and work, from hamlets and villages to towns and cities.

We call these places settlements.

But how can we tell the difference between a hamlet and a village? Or a town and a city?

Well, it mostly depends on how many people live in a place, and how many facilities like shops and schools there are.

Let me show you! This is a hamlet, which is a very small group of homes.

And this is a village. There’s a few shops, a post office, a village hall, as well as a primary school and a doctor’s office.

This is a town. There are more buildings, and there’s a railway station, a secondary school and a shopping centre.

And this is a city. There are lots of buildings and people.

There’s a cathedral, a sports stadium, and large buildings such as universities and hospitals.

Strangely, if a settlement has a cathedral, it’s also called a city, even if it’s not very big, like St Davids in South Wales.

Some settlements have a particular function. For example, this is a port where ships bring goods to and from the UK.

And this is a market town, where local farmers and traders buy and sell their produce.

It all looks so busy down there. I think I prefer it up here.