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

The Top (SO 092 887)

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. 

The Top (SO 092 887)

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 it 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 Pen-y-banc, with an accompanying note stating; Name from buildings to the North-East.  

Pen-y-banc

317m

SO092887

136

214

Name from buildings to the North-East

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 The Top, and this was derived from local enquiry, with the below being an extract from the post relating to the survey of this hill:

I then contemplated calling in at Bank farm which is situated at the bwlch for the second and last hill of the day.  Deciding to leave the farm until after visiting the summit of the hill I proceeded down the narrow lane to the south-west of the summit, as I did so a vehicle appeared and as it looked as if it may have come from Bank farm I flagged it down.  I chatted with the driver for a few minutes; Gwyn Phillips was indeed the local farmer from Bank, and as the hill that I was interested in was straight above us I pointed its way and asked if he knew a name for it, ‘Just know it as The Top’, came the reply, I asked if he had ever heard any other name for it or if he knew of a field name for where the summit of the hill is situated, and he said ‘It’s on my land, but I’ve never heard another name for it’, with that I expressed my thanks and off he sped down towards the main road.

I later checked 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 Tithe map confirmed that the field where the summit of this hill is situated had no name given it at the time of the Tithe, and that the land was adjoined to Bank farm.  This information corresponds with the knowledge that the owner of this farm has, as he told me he had lived there all of his life and except for the name he referred to the hill as; The Top, he did not know another name for the hill or for the field where the summit is situated. 

Therefore, the name this hill is now listed by in the Y Trichant - The 300m Hills of Wales is the The Top, and this was derived from local enquiry with Gwyn Phillips, who lives at Bank farm and whose land the summit of this hill is situated on.  

The full details for the hill are:

Group:  Cilfaesty

Name:  The Top

Previously Listed Name:  Pen-y-banc 

OS 1:50,000 map:  136

Summit Height:  315.5m (converted to OSGM15, Trimble GeoXH 6000)

Summit Grid Reference:  SO 09275 88714 (Trimble GeoXH 6000)  

Bwlch Height:  283.8m (LIDAR)

Bwlch Grid Reference:  SO 09279 88381 (LIDAR)

Drop:  31.7m (Trimble GeoXH 6000 summit and LIDAR bwlch)

For details on the survey of The Top

Myrddyn Phillips (November 2016)