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

Pt. 425.6m (SO 243 802)

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 from LIDAR analysis initially conducted by Aled Williams and subsequently by Myrddyn Phillips.

Pt. 425.6m (SO 243 802)

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, with this hill classified in the 400m Sub-Four category, the criteria for which are all English hills at or above 400m and below 500m in height that have 20m or more and below 30m of drop.  The list is co-authored by Myrddyn Phillips and Aled Williams and the 2^nd edition of the booklet containing this list was 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 Cilfaesty group of hills, which are situated in the Welsh borders, and it is positioned encircled by minor roads, with the B4368 road to its north, the B4355 road to its south-west and the A488 road towards the east south-east, and has the small community of Felindre towards the south and the town of Trefyclo (Knighton) towards the south-east.

When the list that is now known as The Fours - The 400m Hills of England was first compiled, this hill was not included as it did not meet the criteria then used for the accompanying sub list which was entitled; Hills to Measure.  When this list was subsequently uploaded to the RHB Yahoo group file database and data then augmented from Clem Clements it appeared under the name of Spoad Hill.

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 Spoad Hill this name appears on a number of different scaled Ordnance Survey maps and has been consistently applied to the west – east orientated road at a crossroads to the north-east of the summit of this hill, close to where Springfield Farm is positioned and not necessarily to the hill itself.  This form of supplanting a name is not a practice that I now advocate as with time and inclination place-name data can be improved either by asking local people or by examining historical documents, through this form of research an appropriate name for the hill can usually be found.

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

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

Extract from the series of Ordnance Survey Six-Inch maps

However, on occasion even when research is conducted an appropriate name for the hill may not be found, and on such occasions the listing protocol is to use the point (Pt. 425.6m) notation, and for this hill this is such an example.

However, on occasion even after local or historical research an appropriate name for a hill cannot be substantiated and in the case of this hill it was Aled Williams who undertook research with a number of local farmers, all of whom failed to give a name for this hill and importantly were of the opinion that it was not named Spoad Hill, during this research information was given that the adjacent open access land to the north-east of the summit of this hill is known locally as The Turbary, and on such occasions the listing protocol is to use the point (Pt. 425.6m) notation.

Information board showing the boundary of The Turbary

  

Therefore, the name this hill is now listed by in The Fours - The 400m Hills of England is Pt. 425.6m, and this follows the standard practice of using the point notation for a hill whose name has not been substantiated through local enquiry or historical documentation.  

The full details for the hill are:

Group:  Cilfaesty

Name:  Pt. 425.6m

Previously Listed Name:  Spoad Hill (from listing on RHB file database)  

OS 1:50,000 map:  137

Summit Height:  425.6m (LIDAR)

Summit Grid Reference:  SO 24371 80264 (LIDAR) 

 

Col Height:  397.5m (LIDAR)

Col Grid Reference:  SO 23931 80943 (LIDAR)

Drop:  28.1m (LIDAR)

Myrddyn Phillips and Aled Williams (February 2018)