Mapping Mountains – Significant Name Changes – Y Pedwarau

Banc y Cwm (SN 968 470)

There has been a Significant Name Change to a hill that is listed in the Y Pedwarau, with the summit height, drop and status of the hill confirmed by a Trimble GeoXH 6000 survey conducted by Myrddyn Phillips which took place on the 28^th December 2017.

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

Y Pedwarau – 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 1^st edition of the list having been published by Europeaklist in May 2013 and by Haroldstreet in January 2014, and the Introduction to the Mapping Mountains publication of this list appearing on the 30^th January 2017.

The hill is adjoined to the Mynydd Epynt range of hills which are situated in the south-easterly part of Mid and West Wales (Region B, Sub-Region B2), and it is positioned above the B 4519 road which is to its south-west and has the small community of Llangamarch (Llangammarch Wells) to its east, Garth to its north north-west and Cilmeri (Cilmery) towards its north-east.

Banc y Cwm (SN 968 470)

The hill appeared in the 400m P30 list on Geoff Crowder’s v-g.me website in the Hills to be surveyed sub list under the name of The Warren.  Hill list authors are prone to list a hill by the name that appears nearest to its summit on contemporary Ordnance Survey maps, without much consideration for its local or historical confirmation, or whether map placement is appropriate, and in the case of this hill there are two names that are consistently applied on different scaled Ordnance Survey maps to land near this hill’s summit, these names are Banc y Cwm and The Warren.

The Warren

467m

SN968470

147

188

Since publication of these P30 lists on Geoff Crowder’s v-g.me website there have been a number of Ordnance Survey maps made available online, some of these are historical such as the Draft Surveyors map and the One-Inch ‘Old Series’ map, whilst others are current and digitally updated such as the Interactive Coverage Map hosted on the Geograph website.  One of the historical maps now available is the series of Ordnance Survey Six-Inch maps, these formed the base map for many years until they were replaced by the 1:10,000 series, and study has shown that these maps along with the Historical 1:25,000 map are some of the best produced by Ordnance Survey for name placement.

Extract from the Ordnance Survey 1:50,000 Landranger map

Extract from the series of Ordnance Survey Six-Inch maps

In this case it was research via the series of historical Ordnance Survey maps available online coupled with local enquiries that confirmed that the name of Banc y Cwm would be appropriate to use for this hill. 

Therefore, the name this hill is now listed by in the Y Pedwarau is Banc y Cwm and this was derived from historical and contemporary Ordnance Survey maps and local enquiry. 

The full details for the hill are:

Group:  Mynydd Epynt

Name:  Banc y Cwm

Previously Listed Name:  The Warren 

Summit Height:  465.9m (converted to OSGM15)

OS 1:50,000 map:  147

Summit Grid Reference:  SN 96824 47007

  

Drop:  32.5m (converted to OSGM15)

The Trimble GeoXH 6000 gathering data at the summit of Banc y Cwm (SN 968 470)

For details on the survey of Banc y Cwm

Myrddyn Phillips and Aled Williams (February 2018)