20.10.15
The Pimple (SJ 299 472)
The summit of The Pimple (SJ 299 472) |
My last two walks had
explored the remains of land that was once spoil waste from the Bersham and
Hafod Colliery’s respectively, and this walk was similar as just to the west of
Bonc yr Hafod is another hill whose map details suggest that it was made of mine
spoil dug from the ground. This hill is
also of interest as the current Ordnance Survey 1:50,000 and 1:25,000 maps have
a 23m height difference for their summit spot heights with the 1:50,000 giving
131m and the 1:25,000 giving 154m, I thought a little Trimbling should be able
to sort this out.
I parked on a housing
estate at approximately SJ 298 468 which is to the south-west of the summit and
walked down the road to a gate / stile giving access to a public footpath in a
field, where two horses were contentedly grazing and one sauntered over to make
closer inspection of their new visitor.
The critical bwlch for
this hill is positioned westward of the summit in a valley that is narrow on
the hill to hill traverse and elongated on the valley to valley traverse,
without the aid of optical implements I knew that I may have to take a series
of data sets to then compare heights, and the first of these was beside a hedgerow
where interpolation suggests the bwlch to be placed.
Beyond was a foot stile
and cropped grass leading to a house, as I wanted to ask about the name of the
hill I headed toward it and Glenys Valentine came out to meet me, Glenys is
aged 77 and proved a lovely woman to speak with, within a few minutes her son;
Kevin, pulled up and the three of us chatted away for 15 minutes or so, they
know the mound at the top of their field as ‘The Pimple’ and although Glenys can
speak Welsh and Kevin had a smattering of the language, it was the English term
they used and knew the hill by, this had been used by the family for a number
of generations. I also asked if I could
survey a number of points close to the house and explained what I was
doing. They both gave me permission to
do so and Kevin suggested the best way to take to visit the summit.
Over the next hour I
happily gathered a further four data sets from various points on the valley to
valley traverse, this was complicated by a mound near to the house and ground
either side joining and continuing down valley.
Gathering data from the critical bwlch of The Pimple |
Once I was satisfied
that sufficient data sets had been gathered from the area of the bwlch I headed
up the hill to the summit of The Pimple, this is as its name suggests; a small
mound perched on top of another larger one, all is land that was once mine
spoil, it is now grassed over. As the
Trimble gathered data I looked over toward the adjacent field where the 154m
spot height appears on current maps, and once the Trimble had done its stuff I
clambered over the fence and marched to the top of the ploughed and smoothly
rounded field.
Gathering data from the summit of The Pimple |
It wasn’t difficult to
judge where the summit was placed and the Trimble was soon perched on top of my
rucksack gathering its allotted five minutes of data. Thankfully all was quiet hereabouts as where
the summit is situated was just out of sight of many of the surrounding
buildings.
Gathering data from the high point in the adjacent field |
Once data were gathered
I packed the Trimble away and clambered back over the fence, walked down the
hill to the grassed valley and back to my car.
Survey Result:
The Pimple (significant name change)
Summit Height: 153.5m (converted to OSGM15) (significant height revision)
Summit Grid Reference: SJ 29984 47262 (summit relocation confirmed)
Bwlch Height: 128.3m (converted to OSGM15)
Bwlch Grid Reference: SJ 29752 47350
For further details please
consult the Trimble survey spreadsheet click {here}
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