Mapping Mountains – Significant Height Revisions – The Fours - The 400m Hills of England

Minton Hill (SO 414 919)

There has been a Significant Height Revision to a hill that is listed in the The Fours – The 400m Hills of England, with these details being retrospective as the survey that resulted in this height revision was conducted on 2^nd January 2015.  With the summit height, col height and their locations, the drop and status of the hill derived from a Trimble GeoXH 6000 survey and subsequent LIDAR analysis conducted by Myrddyn Phillips.

Minton Hill (SO 414 919)

The criteria for the list this height revision affects are:

The Fours – The 400m Hills of England.  English hills at or above 400m and below 500m in height that have 30m minimum drop, accompanying the main list are three categories of sub hills, with this hill being included in the 400m Sub-Four category, the criteria for which are all English hills at or above 400m and below 500m in height that have 20m or more and below 30m of drop.  The list is co-authored by Myrddyn Phillips and Aled Williams, with the 1^st edition of the booklet containing this list published by Europeaklist in December 2013 and by Haroldstreet in January 2014.

The Fours - The 400m Hills of England by Myrddyn Phillips and Aled Williams

The name the hill is listed by is Minton Hill and it is adjoined to the Stiperstones group of hills, which are situated in the county of Shropshire close to the Welsh border, and it is positioned by minor roads to its north-west and south-east, with the A489 road to its south-west and the B5477 road and the A49 road to its east, and has the town of Church Stretton towards the east north-east.

Extract from the Ordnance Survey 1:25,000 Explorer map

When the 1^st edition of the The Fours was published by Europeaklist in December 2013, this hill was listed with 22m of drop, based on the 453m summit spot height and the 453m col spot height that appear on the contemporary Ordnance Survey 1:25,000 Explorer map. 

The Trimble GeoXH 6000 gathering data at the summit of Minton Hill

However, it was not until the survey with the Trimble GeoXH 6000 that an accurate height could be established for the summit of this hill.  This survey gives the highest ground on this hill as 455.4m positioned at SO 41456 91920, and this comes within the parameters of the Significant Height Revisions used within this page heading, these parameters are:

The term Significant Height Revisions applies to any listed hill whose interpolated height and Ordnance Survey or Harvey map summit spot height has a 2m or more discrepancy when compared to the survey result produced by the Trimble GeoXH 6000 or analysis of data produced via LIDAR, also included are hills whose summit map data is missing an uppermost ring contour when compared to the data produced by the Trimble or by LIDAR analysis.

Therefore, the new listed summit height of this hill is 455.4m and this was derived from a Trimble GeoXH 6000 survey, this position is adjacent to where the spot height appears and is 2.4m higher than the previously listed 453m summit height, which appears as a spot height on the contemporary Ordnance Survey 1:25,000 Explorer map. 

The full details for the hill are:

Group:  Stiperstones

Name:  Minton Hill

OS 1:50,000 map:  137

Summit Height:  455.4m (converted to OSGM15, Trimble GeoXH 6000)

Summit Grid Reference:  SO 41456 91920 (Trimble GeoXH 6000) 

 

Col Height:  431.9m (LIDAR)

Col Grid Reference:  SO 41252 92137 (LIDAR)

Drop:  23.5m (Trimble GeoXH 6000 summit and LIDAR col)

Myrddyn Phillips and Aled Williams (September 2015)