Mapping Mountains – Significant Name Changes – The Fours - The 400m Hills of England

Cowpe Moss (SD 834 193)

There has been a Significant Name Change to a hill that is listed in the The Fours – The 400m Hills of England, with the summit height, col height and their locations, the drop and status of the hill derived by a Leica 530 summit survey conducted by John Barnard, Graham Jackson and Myrddyn Phillips on the 8^th July 2009 and subsequent LIDAR col analysis conducted by Myrddyn Phillips.

Cowpe Moss (SD 834 193)

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

The Fours – The 400m Hills of England.  English hills at or above 400m and below 500m in height that have 30m minimum drop, accompanying the main list are three categories of sub hills; the 400m Sub-Four category, the 390m Sub-Four category and the 390m Double Sub-Four category.  The list is co-authored by Myrddyn Phillips and Aled Williams and the 2^nd edition of the booklet containing this list was subsequently published by Mapping Mountains Publications on the 24^th April 2018.

The Fours - The 400m Hills of England by Myrddyn Phillips and Aled Williams

The hill is adjoined to the Cowpe Moss group of hills, which are situated in the southern Pennines, and it is positioned with the A681 road to its north, the A680 road to its south-west and the A671 road to its east, and has the towns of Rawtenstall to its north-west and Bacup to its north-east.

When the listing that later became known as The Fours - The 400m Hills of England was originally compiled this hill appeared under the name of Cowpe Moss, the name was then given as Hailstorm Hill (Cowpe Moss) when this list was uploaded to the RHB Yahoo group file database.  Subsequently the hill was listed as Hailstorm Hill in the 1st edition of The Fours published by Europeaklist in December 2013.  With both of these names appearing on contemporary Ordnance Survey maps.

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

Since the original publication of this list there have been a number of maps made available online.  Some of these are historic such as the series of Six-Inch maps on the National Library of Scotland website.  Whilst others were digitally updated such as the Ordnance Survey Vector Map Local that was hosted on the Geograph website and which was entitled the Interactive Coverage Map, whilst others are current and digitally updated such as the interactive mapping on the Magic Maps and WalkLakes websites, and it is the series of Ordnance Survey Six-Inch maps that form the basis of the change in the listed name of this hill.

Extract from the Ordnance Survey series of Six-Inch maps

The Ordnance Survey series of Six-Inch maps formed the base map Ordnance Survey used for many decades leading to the production of the 1:10,000 Series of maps, both have now been superseded by the digitised Master Map.  The series of Six-Inch maps are excellent for name placement and especially so compared to the contemporary Ordnance Survey 1:25,000 Explorer map, and it is the series of Six-Inch maps that position the name of Cowpe Moss nearer the summit of this hill.

Therefore, the name this hill is now listed by in the The Fours – The 400m Hills of England is Cowpe Moss and this was derived from contemporary Ordnance Survey maps, with it being prioritised in favour of Hail Storm Hill via name placement on the Ordnance Survey series of Six-Inch maps.

  

The full details for the hill are:

Group:  Cowpe Moss

Name:  Cowpe Moss

Previously Listed Name:  Hailstorm Hill 

OS 1:50,000 map:  109

Summit Height:  476.7m (converted to OSGM15, Leica 530)

Summit Grid Reference:  SD 83497 19346 (Leica 530)  

Col Height:  228.8m (LIDAR)

Col Grid REference:  SD 88463 27399 (LIDAR)

Drop:  247.9m (Leica 530 summit and LIDAR col)

Myrddyn Phillips and Aled Williams (January 2018)