Mapping Mountains – Significant Name Changes – 200m Twmpau

Y Golfa (SJ 173 073)

There has been a Significant Name Change to a hill that is listed in the 200m Twmpau, with the following details relating to a hill that was surveyed with the Trimble GeoXH 6000 on the 20^th August 2014.

The criteria for the list that this name change affects are:

200m Twmpau - The word Twmpau is an acronym standing for thirty welsh metre prominences and upward, and the criteria for the 200m height band of hills within the overall Twmpau are; all Welsh hills at and above 200m and below 300m in height that have 30m minimum drop,  with an accompanying sub category entitled the 200m Sub-Twmapu with these being all Welsh hills at and above 200m and below 300m in height that have 20m and more and below 30m of drop. 

The hill is part of the Carnedd Wen group of hills, which are situated in the southern part of north Wales, and it is positioned to the north of the A 458 road that heads west toward the coast from Y Trallwng (Welshpool).

Y Golfa (SJ 173 073)

The Welsh P30 lists that were published on Geoff Crowder's v-g.me website had accompanying sub lists entitled; Hills to be Surveyed.  This Sub-List included all known hills that when surveyed may have sufficient prominence to be included in the main P30 list, this was based on map detail with Ordnance Survey spot heights taken at face value, therefore a hill with a 250m summit and a 231m bwlch spot height was not included in the Sub-List as with a 29m prominence it was deemed not to have a chance of inclusion in the main P30 list.  I now know that Ordnance Survey spot heights have a +/- 3m margin of uncertainty applicable to them and therefore the Sub-Twmpau list has been standardised to include all hills that have 20m and more and below 30m of drop.

As this hill’s detail on Ordnance Survey maps did not meet the criteria for inclusion in the Hills to be Surveyed Sub-List, the first time this hill was categorised was in an unpublished format when the Welsh P30 hills and their now standardised sub lists were updated, the hill was subsequently surveyed with the Trimble GeoXH 6000.  Prior to the survey with the Trimble the hill was categorised using the point (Pt. 299.8m) notation, this convention is used when an appropriate name has  not been discovered for the hill from any source rather than use a name for which there is no historical or local evidence of use.

The name this hill is now listed by is Y Golfa and this was derived from the Tithe map.  The term Tithe map is generally given to a map of a Welsh or English parish or township and which was prepared after the 1836 Tithe Commutation Act.  This act allowed tithes to be paid in cash rather than goods.  The Tithe maps gave names of owners and occupiers of land in each parish and importantly for place-name research they also included the name of enclosed land.  This enclosed land is usually based on a field system, however not every field is given a name, but many are and especially so in Wales.

The enclosed land is given a number which can be cross referenced against the apportionments; it is these apportionments that give the name of the owner or occupier of the land as well as the name of the land.  However, in this instance the land where the summit of this hill is situated is on common land and named as Golfa Common; it appears in the county named as Montgomery and in the parish of Castell Caereinion.

Accessing information on the Tithe map is simplified by the use of a split screen enabling the bounded land as it appears today on the map on the right to be compared to how it was enclosed during the time of the Tithe map on the left

The hill this post relates to has a higher adjacent hill named on current Ordnance Survey maps as Y Golfa (SJ 182 070), both summits are now a part of Welshpool Golf Club and are designated open access land.  The land named as Golfa Common on the Tithe map also takes in the higher summit now known as Y Golfa, in affect they are a part of the same hill and known by the same name.  

The full details for the hill are:

Group:  Carnedd Wen

Name:  Y Golfa

Previously Listed Name:  Pt. 299.8m

 

Summit Height:  299.8m (converted to OSGM15)

OS 1:50,000 map:  125

Summit Grid Reference:  SJ 17363 07344 

 

Drop:  26.4m (converted to OSGM15)

For details on the survey of Y Golfa

Myrddyn Phillips (July 2016)