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

Esgair Fawr (SN 927 433)

There has been a Significant Name Change to a hill that is listed in the Y Pedwarau, with the summit height of the hill being confirmed by a Trimble GeoXH 6000 survey which was conducted on the 28^th December 2016, with the hill previously analysed via LIDAR data by Aled Williams.

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

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

The hill is a part of the Mynydd Epynt range, which is a group of hills situated in the south-eastern part of Mid and West Wales (Region B, Sub-Region B-2), and it is positioned above the small town of Llanwrtyd (Llanwrtyd Wells) to its north-west and Llangamarch (Llangammarch Wells) to its north. 

Esgair Fawr (SN 927 433)

The hill appeared in the 400m P30 list on Geoff Crowder’s v-g.me website under the name Ffynnon Bevan, with an accompanying note stating that this is a trig point name.  

Ffynnon Bevan

475m

SN927433

147/160

188

Fynnon Bevan is trig point name. Clem: drop 34m. Included by contour configuration.

Hill list authors are prone to list a hill by the name that appears nearest to its summit on Ordnance Survey maps, without much consideration for its local or historical confirmation, or whether map placement is appropriate, and in the case of Ffynnon Bevan this name is presented on Ordnance Survey maps south-westward of this hill’s summit as Fynnon Dafydd Bevan and is applicable to a spring beside an old farm house.  Although the Ordnance Survey have been responsible for the documenting of many thousands of Welsh upland place-names, and in the process of doing so they have also saved an unprecedented number of these names from being lost, they are also responsible for using names that are not the most appropriate, although in their defence of this name, all they have done is name a trig pillar and not necessarily the hill.  However, this is an example where the supplanting of a name can easily lead an ill-informed hill list author down a route that lists a hill by an inappropriate name.   

With time and inclination place-name data can be improved by asking local people and examining historical documents, and in the case of this hill it was a local farmer who gave the name Esgair Fawr for land taking in the summit of this hill.

Therefore, the name this hill is now listed by in the Y Pedwarau is Esgair Fawr and this was derived from local enquiry.

The full details for the hill are:

Group:  Mynydd Epynt

Name:  Esgair Fawr

Previously Listed Name:  Ffynnon Bevan

 

Summit Height:  475.3m (converted to OSGM15)

OS 1:50,000 map:  147, 160

Summit Grid Reference:  SN 92746 43357  

Drop:  36.1m (Trimble summit and LIDAR bwlch)

For details on the survey of Esgair Fawr

Myrddyn Phillips and Aled Williams (January 2017)