Mapping Mountains – Hill Reclassifications – 100m Twmpau

Bersham Bank (SJ 311 481) - 100m Twmpau addition  

There has been an addition to the 100m Twmpau (thirty welsh metre prominences and upward) hill list instigated by a survey with the Trimble GeoXH 6000.   The hill is situated on the southern outskirts of Rhostyllen, which is a south-western suburb of Wrecsam (Wrexham), in the easterly part of the Bryniau Clwyd.

These details are retrospective as the Trimble GeoXH 6000 survey that resulted in this hill’s inclusion as a 100m Twmpau was conducted on the 13^th October 2015 in good, dry and sometimes bright conditions, in the afternoon of an early autumnal day.

The hill can be accessed from its east from a road adjacent to an industrial estate.  Beside the road is a perimeter fence seemingly barring entrance to a path on the lower slopes of the hill, however, one section of the six foot high fence has been toppled over giving access to the public, including local people, who I was told occasionally walk up the hill.

The hill is named Bersham Bank and its summit is positioned at SJ 311 481.  This is the preferred locally known name for the hill and was found when I made enquiries after my ascent.  The only name that appears on current Ordnance Survey maps relating to this hill is ‘Colliery (disused)’.  As the Ordnance Survey detail implies, this hill is the relic of coal waste which was deposited from the workings of the Bersham Colliery which closed its operations in December 1986.

Current mapping does not give this hill any ring contours, although other hills created from coal waste that are relatively near to Bersham Bank at SJ 311 469 and SJ 300 473 do possess separate ring contours.  Although current maps do not give this hill any summit contours, the ones at its bwlch are between 100m – 105m, with the height of the bwlch estimated as being c 103m.

 

The survey with the Trimble GeoXH 6000 resulted in a 153.6m (converted to OSGM15) summit height and with the bwlch estimated to be c 103m high; these values give the hill c 51m of drop.

The full details for the hill are:

Cardinal Hill:  Moel y Gamelin

Summit Height:  153.6m (converted to OSGM15)

Name:  Bersham Bank

OS 1:50,000 map:  117

Summit Grid Reference:  SJ 31159 48116

Drop:  c 51m

Bersham Bank (SJ 311 481) is now confirmed as a 100m Twmpau

For details on the survey that resulted in this hill being added to the list of 100m Twmpau hills please click {here}

Myrddyn Phillips (October 2015)