Mapping Mountains – Significant Name Changes – Y Trichant - The 300m Hills of Wales

Broomy Leasow (SO 093 881)

There has been a Significant Name Change to a hill that is listed in the Y Trichant – The 300m Hills of Wales, with the summit height, bwlch height and their locations, the drop and status of the hill derived from a Trimble GeoXH 6000 summit survey and subsequent LIDAR bwlch analysis conducted by Myrddyn Phillips.

Broomy Leasow (SO 093 881) 

The criteria for the list that this name change applies to are:

Y Trichant – The 300m Hills of Wales – Welsh hills at or above 300m and below 400m in height that have 30m minimum drop, with an accompanying sub list entitled the Sub-Trichant, with the criteria for this sub category being all Welsh hills at or above 300m and below 400m in height with 20m or more and below 30m of drop.  The list is authored by Myrddyn Phillips with the Introduction to the list and the renaming of it appearing on Mapping Mountains on the 13^th May 2017, and the Introduction to the Mapping Mountains publication of the list appearing on the 1^st January 2022.

The hill is a part of the Cilfaesty range, which is a group of hills situated in the north-eastern part of Mid and West Wales, and the hill is positioned above the A 483 road and between the town of Y Drenewydd (Newtown) to its north and the small community of Dolfor to its south-east. 

The hill appeared in the 300m P30 list on Geoff Crowder’s v-g.me website under the transposed name of Bryn-bedwen, with an accompanying note stating; Name from buildings to the South-West.  

Bryn-bedwen

327m

SO093881

136

214

Name from buildings to the South-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 or as in this instance transpose the name of a farm and use it for that of the 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.   

Extract from the Ordnance Survey 1:25,000 Explorer map

The name this hill is now listed by is Broomy Leasow, and the land that this name is applicable to was confirmed via 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 summit to be pinpointed on the map on the right and for the same point to appear on the Tithe map on the left

The enclosed land where the summit of this hill is situated is given the number B. 282 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 Broomy Leasow on the Tithe map and described as Arable; it appears in the county named as Montgomery and in the parish of Ceri.

The land where the summit of this hill is situated is named as Broomy Leasow on the Tithe map

Therefore, the name this hill is now listed by in the Y Trichant - The 300m Hills of Wales is Broomy Leasow, which is rather evocative, as the word leasow means pasture or meadowland, whilst broomy means covered with or abounding in broom, broom being the flowering shrub.

The full details for the hill are:

Group:  Cilfaesty

Name:  Broomy Leasow

Previously Listed Name:  Bryn-bedwen 

OS 1:50,000 map:  136

Summit Height:  325.6m (converted to OSGM15, Trimble GeoXH 6000)

Summit Grid Reference:  SO 09332 88123 (Trimble GeoXH 6000)  

Bwlch Height:  266.0m (LIDAR)

Bwlch Grid Reference:  SO 09478 87710 (LIDAR)

Drop:  59.6m (Trimble GeoXH 6000 summit and LIDAR bwlch)

For details on the survey of Broomy Leasow

Myrddyn Phillips (November 2016)