Mapping Mountains – Significant Name Changes – Y Pedwarau - The 400m Hills of Wales

Gwastad Mawr (SJ 210 349)

There has been a Significant Name Change to a hill that is listed in the Y Pedwarau, with positions for the summit and bwlch being surveyed with the Trimble GeoXH 6000 on the 29^th April 2015 and 7^th June 2015 respectively, and LIDAR being subsequently prioritised for the bwlch.

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

Y Pedwarau - All Welsh hills at and above 400m and below 500m in height that have 30m minimum drop,  with the introduction to the Mapping Mountains publication of this list appearing on the 30th January 2017, with the list being co-authored by Myrddyn Phillips and Aled Williams.

The hill is part of the Y Berwyn, which is an extensive group of hills situated in the south-eastern part of north Wales.  The hill is positioned with the town of Glyn Ceiriog to its north, and with the small communities of Craignant and Selattyn towards its east.

The point surveyed for the summit of Gwastad Mawr

The hill appeared in the 400m P30 list on Geoff Crowder’s v-g.me website under the name Pen y Gwely North Top, with an accompanying note stating; Name from hill to the South.  

Pen y Gwely North Top

449m

SJ211349

126

240/255

Name from hill to the South

During my early hill listing I thought it appropriate to either invent a name for a hill, or use a name that appeared near to the summit of the hill on Ordnance Survey maps of the day.  My preference was to use farm names and put Pen, Bryn or Moel in front of them, or as in this instance, use the name of another hill as a directional name as no other map name seemed suitable for the listed hill.  This is not a practice that I now advocate as with research either conducted locally or historically an appropriate name for the hill can usually be found.

The name this hill is now listed by in the Y Pedwarau is Gwastad Mawr, and this was derived from the Ordnance Survey One-Inch ‘Old Series’ map.

An extract from the Ordnance Survey One-Inch 'Old Series' map

The One-Inch ‘Old Series’ was the first map that Ordnance Survey published, and  they were based on the preceding Draft Surveyors map.  Their publication culminated from the whole of Britain being surveyed between 1791 and 1874 and the detail gathered therein produced at a scale of one inch to the mile and published in sheet format between 1805 and 1874.  The One-Inch ‘Old Series’ maps for the whole of Wales are now available online; they are also available in map format as enlarged and re-projected versions to match the scale and dimensions of the Ordnance Survey 1:50,000 Landranger series and are published by Cassini.  This series of maps forms another important part in the study of Welsh upland place-names and bridge the time frame leading to the production of the Ordnance Survey base map of the Six-Inch series.

The full details for the hill are:

Group:  Y Berwyn

Name:  Gwastad Mawr

Previously Listed Name:  Pen y Gwely North Top 

Summit Height:  448.9m (converted to OSGM15)

OS 1:50,000 map:  126

Summit Grid Reference:  SJ 21055 34971 

 

Drop:  35.3m (Trimble summit and LIDAR bwlch)

For details on the summit and bwlch survey of Gwastad Mawr

Myrddyn Phillips and Aled Williams (July 2016)