Mapping Mountains – Significant Name Changes – 200m Twmpau

Erw Penlan (SO 045 495)

There has been a Significant Name Change to a hill that is listed in the 200m Twmpau, with the summit height, drop and status of the hill being confirmed by a Trimble GeoXH 6000 survey which took place on the 13^th June 2017.

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

200m Twmpau - All Welsh hills at and above 200m and below 300m in height that have 30m minimum drop, with an accompanying sub category entitled the 200m Sub-Twmapu being all Welsh hills at and above 200m and below 300m in height that have 20m and more and below 30m of drop, with the word Twmpau being an acronym standing for thirty welsh metre prominences and upward.

The hill is adjoined to the Mynydd Epynt range, this group of hills is situated in the south-eastern part of Mid and West Wales (Region B, Sub-Region B2), and it is positioned above the A 483 road which is to the hill’s north and east, with the town of Llanfair-ym-Muallt (Builth Wells) positioned to its north.

Erw Penlan (SO 045 495)

The hill did not appear in the 200m P30 list on Geoff Crowder’s v-g.me website as it did not meet the criteria then adopted for the Hills to be surveyed sub list.  The hill was only classified and listed as Coetgae Fawr in the sub category after this was standardised with the updates to the Mynydd Epynt group of hills in the Welsh 200m P30 list appearing on Mapping Mountains on the 25^th August 2014.  

During my early hill listing I paid little regard to name placement on a map, or the meaning of names and to what feature the name was appropriately applied to, and used many names that seemingly applied to a hill and whose placement was nearest the summit of the hill on Ordnance Survey maps of the day.  Therefore I prioritised names for listing purposes that I now understand are inappropriate.  This hill, or at least a part of it is named Coetgae Fawr on contemporary Ordnance Survey 1:25,000 Explorer maps, this name when translated into English can mean the large enclosure.  The use of the word Coetgae implies that the name on the map is specific to bounded land and therefore the details for this hill were examined on 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 with the use of a split screen enabling the boundary of enclosed land to be compared

The enclosed land where the summit of this hill is situated is given the number 202 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 Erw Penlan on the Tithe map and described as Arable, this name can be translated as top of the enclosed acre and the land is that associated with Maes-y-cwm, which is a farm to the south-east of the hill’s summit; the details on the Tithe map appear in the county named as Radnor and in the parish of Llanddewir Cwm.

When cross referenced in the apportionments the enclosed land is named as Erw Penlan

Therefore, the hill is now listed in the 200m Twmpau as Erw Penlan, and this name was derived from the Tithe map.

 

The full details for the hill are:

Group:  Mynydd Epynt

Name:  Erw Penlan

Previously Listed Name:  Coetgae Fawr

 

Summit Height:  212.1m (converted to OSGM15)

OS 1:50,000 map:  147

Summit Grid Reference:  SO 04597 49535

  

Drop:  20.9m (converted to OSGM15)

For details on the survey of Erw Penlan

Myrddyn Phillips (August 2017)