The History of Welsh Hill Lists

The History of Welsh Hill Lists – Part 10

The Early Years

1950-1962

1952 – Ted Moss

By this time the small disperse community of Welsh hill list compilers only numbered seven – Corbett, Carr and Lister, Parker, Moss, Walsh and, most recently, Rowland.  Two of these, Walsh and Moss, were now in correspondence with one another swapping information and ideas.  This, in time, had a direct result on the next instalment of our story.

The year is now 1952.  Ted Moss had recently become the first person to complete his and Simpson’s combined lists to the Two-thousands of England and Wales.  But further studies of the maps proved that certain qualifying tops to his 1940 list had been missed.  I will let the father of the 2,000 foot published hill list take up the story; “My object is to tidy up the published lists of two-thousands.  In going over the whole of the ground I have found F.H.F. Simpson’s list for the Lake District to be extremely accurate and there appears to be only one omission from it.  My own lists for the Rest of England and Wales are somewhat less complete and several tops, mostly small, but all conforming to the 50 foot contour ring definition have come to light”.

The update was published in the 1952 edition of the Rucksack Club Journal. It consisted of a four page article entitled ‘All Those Two-Thousands’ – although the main purpose of the article is to list the newly found tops, it is much more than just an update to an existing list and is more of an introductory text to Moss’s thoughts on the two-thousands, and proved by far the most expansive text Moss wrote in conjunction with his hill lists.  For this reason it is worthwhile quoting in detail from it:

Front cover to the 1952 Rucksack Club Journal

“It can be argued that to every man there are as many Snowdons as he has made ascents, but the fastnesses of the Black Mountains or the shy secrets of Radnor Forest can give him something more that Snowdon can never give, however many ways he climbs it.  It is true that the pursuit of the unknown becomes a habit and one has to beware of a tendency to reject even the finest peak with a curt ‘Not likely, I’ve done it’, or ‘Going up Cross Fell?’ – ‘No, I did it in 1933’; or ‘What about including Moel Meirch?’ – ‘No, it’s not in the list (thank God for two odd feet!)”.

“It must be admitted that some two-thousands are dull.  Many of the Pennine tops are likely to satisfy only those who have acquired a taste for that type of country.  It is a taste worth cultivating, if only for the solitude.  To some two-thousands one would not wish to return.  But in this game, and it is only a game, one must take the rough with the smooth, the great with the small, and the obvious with the obscure. The Rhinogs nowhere reach 2,500 feet but they provide the roughest and toughest walking in Wales, and the rarely visited tops round the Hirnant Valley near Bala are a close second.  The two thousands are of that middle height from which the distant views look their best”.

Walsh had instigated the correspondence between himself and Moss of which Ted Moss states: “I am indebted to A. St. G. Walsh for drawing my attention to two of the additional tops in Wales.  He is a mine of information on two-thousands and has recently published an account of his researches”.  After this public thank you, Moss comments on Walsh’s article : “Unfortunately Walsh gives only a specimen list and does not indicate to what extent he depends on objective measurement or on subjective judgement in deciding whether the drop is more or less than 50 ft”.  This is the first of only two published comments made between the only people to have compiled a comprehensive list to the Welsh 2,000 ft mountains.

The first page to Ted's article in the 1952 Rucksack Club Journal; page 67

The last page to Ted's article in the 1952 Rucksack Club Journal; page 70

The update to Moss’s list appears on the last page of his article.  Nine new two-thousands are listed, two being in England with the remaining seven being in Wales.  The combined total of English and Welsh two-thousands now stood at 621, with Wales’s total being 244.  None of the seven new Welsh two-thousands had appeared in a hill list before.  Moss was correct when he described them as “mostly small”, as none are significant.

Perhaps because of this, Moss explains his and Simpson’s use of the single ring contour criterion:

Simpson’s and my own lists are all based on the 50 ft contour ring definition, which is admittedly arbitrary; but they include also a number of tops without a contour ring, tops which were included originally for sentimental, local or other reasons.  The collector who wishes to be arbitrary in a consistent manner will exclude these tops and reduce the number to 216 for the Lakes, 150 for the Rest of England, and 243 for Wales.  On the other hand there are a number of worthy tops over 2,000 ft with very distinct rises all round which nevertheless do not figure in the lists because their rises occur between adjacent 50 ft map contours.  Examples are Tewit How, Crag Hill, and Craig Ysgafn (all contours are missing on the map hereabouts).  The identification of all the ringless tops in and out of the lists is left to the initiative of the collector”.

Next instalment due on the 30^th September 2015

For the Preface please click {here}

For Part 1 please click {here}

For Part 2 please click {here}

For Part 3 please click {here}

For Part 4 please click {here}

For Part 5 please click {here}

For Part 6 please click {here}

For Part 7 please click {here}

For Part 8 please click {here}

For Part 9 please click {here}