Mapping Mountains – Significant Name Changes – 200m Twmpau

Flat Field (SJ 198 136)

There has been a Significant Name Change to a hill that is listed in the 200m Twmpau, and the following details are in respect of a hill that was surveyed with the Trimble GeoXH 6000 on the 8^th August 2015.

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

200m Twmpau - All Welsh hills at and above 200m and below 300m in height that have 30m minimum drop, with the word Twmpau being an acronym standing for thirty welsh metre prominences and upward.

The hill is a part of the Carnedd Wen range, which is an extensive group of hills situated in the southern part of north Wales.  It is positioned between the small community of Meifod to its west and the village of Cegidfa (Guilsfield) to its south-east and is part of the area known as Pentre’r beirdd.

The Trimble GeoXH 6000 gathering data at the summit of Flat Field

The hill appeared in the 200m P30 list on Geoff Crowder’s v-g.me website under an invented name of Bryn Pentre’r-beirdd, with an accompanying note stating; Name from buildings to the West.  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.  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.

Bryn Pentre'r-beirdd

234m

SJ198136

125

239

Name from buildings to the West

The name this hill is now listed by is Flat Field, 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.

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 enclosed land where the summit of Flat Field is situated is given the number 563 on the Tithe map, this 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.  The land where the summit of this hill is situated is named as Flat Field and is described as Arable; it appears in the county named as Montgomery and in the parish of Guilsfield, with the adjacent bounded land to the west which now forms part of the same field given the number 562 on the Tithe map and the name Coppice Field in the apportionments.  Importantly it is the land of Flat Field that takes in the summit of this hill and not that of Coppice Field.

The land where the summit of this hill is situated is named as Flat Field on the Tithe map

The full details for the hill are:

Group:  Carnedd Wen

Name:  Flat Field

Previously Listed Name:  Bryn Pentre’r-beirdd 

Summit Height:  234.0m (converted to OSGM15)

OS 1:50,000 map:  125

Summit Grid Reference:  SJ 19845 13602

  

Drop:  41m

For details on the survey of Flat Field

Myrddyn Phillips (August 2016)