#TOWNS

I am grateful for the numerous cross-country rail journeys I’ve ridden for several years, and road rides where I have woven through stacks of small settlements such as hamlets, villages and towns. How are these places different from cities? Well, there is no hard and fast rule to define what distinguishes small settlements from cities, but I often find that: 1) the size of a place, 2) size of its population, and 3) the level of modern urban infrastructure it holds, to be key distinguishing factors.

Culture

City life can often be sensationalised for featuring positive qualities such as convenience, leisure provision, variety, and diversity, or negative qualities such as crime, homelessness, and poverty. But the truth is that ANY settlement, regardless of its size and stature, will often feature an interplay of ALL these dynamics, sometimes within a single street or block of houses! I make this point because I would like to put to bed any essentialist, reductionist and stereotypical, black-and-white views of people and places, and instead endorse capturing a view of what I experience in full, of all the colours and qualities I witness!

I continue to be captivated by the pockets of small settlements and countless communities I weave through. Such spaces are often easier to access and approach due to the more personal atmosphere they prune. Some can also retain a unique character and vibe that is fascinating to experience and explore, despite how ‘unspectacular’ and ‘mundane’ they may appear in a snapshot.

Why the fascination? Because they provide a window into different ways of how people live across, shape and organise their own spaces, which are features that are often more prominent in smaller settlements.

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#drBACKPACKsTOWNS

I often wind and wheel away from landmarks and hotspots – often central and urban – that tend to be promoted by tourist initiatives and bodies, to discover these differences. I’m seldom seduced by statistics that attempt to accentuate the value and significance of a place, nor by how popular one place may appear over another. I want to discover what places mean to me once I’ve ventured there and explored. #drBACKPACKsTOWNS will feature articles of different, small settlements I have explored and the experiences I have taken away. I will soon be publishing articles about the following places:

• Aberystwyth
• Bath
• Dumfries
• Yeovil