15.02.18 The Warren (SO 318 685)
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| The Warren (SO 318 685) |
The Warren is listed as
a 400m Sub-Four and straddles the border between England and Wales with its
summit in England and its col in Wales.
I was running a tight schedule as I had already visited and surveyed the
col of Worcestershire Beacon and the summit of Wapley Hill and wanted to
de-twin the two 417m map heighted summits of Farrington Bank after this survey,
and needed to get to Newtown for 6.00pm for a meal and the cinema, so although
this hill can be combined in a more satisfying way with adjacent hills, I opted
for a quick there and back from the convenience of the high narrow lane to the
west of its summit.
As I left my car and
straddled the wired fence giving access to the closely cropped grazing field
where the summit of The Warren is situated, the wind whipped across the land
with a chilled feeling, I hoped a quick walk to the hill’s high point would at
least build a little inner warmth!
The summit was easy to
identify and within a few minutes I’d set the Trimble up on the ground secured
in place by three small flat rocks. As
it beeped away gathering the allotted five minutes of data I wandered down the
upper part of the hill to take photos looking south toward Wapley Hill.
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| Gathering data at the summit of The Warren (SO 318 685) |
Further north-east the
sky was a sleet driven grey with huge shower clouds massing and depositing snow
flurries on the higher ground, however The Warren remained bathed in sunshine,
albeit very chilly.
To the north-west the
observatory on top of one of the two 417m map heighted summits of Farrington
Bank stood out against its near forestry and adjacent twin topped summit, these
were my next surveying objective.
Once the Trimble had
collected its data I scampered back to my car and its relative warmth and drove
toward the observatory, and after surveying the two 417m summits of Farrington
Bank I drove the short distance back on the narrow lane to the area of the col
of The Warren.
I’d recently looked at
levelled heights on the series of Ordnance Survey Six-Inch maps on the area of
this hill’s col whilst updating my part of the forthcoming The Fours
publication, and had travelled the narrow road in a Google car and had also
looked at the lay of land as I passed over the col whilst driving between The
Warren and Farrington Bank, my conclusion was that the hill to hill traverse
met at or close to the road junction beside a narrow conifer plantation. However, to be sure I needed to investigate
the lay of land on foot.
I parked at the start of
a track leading to Upper Barn and walked the short distance back on the narrow
lane to the area of the col, I looked at this col for a number of minutes
following each hill to hill traverse to where they theoretically met, and then
how this point developed in relation to the valley to valley traverse and
concluded as I had before; the critical col is placed at the T-junction of
narrow lanes.
As what I deemed to be
the position of the critical col had mature conifer trees to its immediate
south, and a telegraph pole, fence, gate and stunted trees beside it I
retrieved my car and parked it on what I judged to be the col and aligned the
Trimble with it whilst placed on the car roof, this gave it a 1.44m elevation
above the col and a greater chance of picking up signals from orbiting
satellites. Thankfully the 0.1m accuracy
level before data should be logged was quickly attained as a massive lump of
grey murk was rolling down the valley slowly engulfing the town of Knighton,
and I wanted to finish my day’s surveying in the dry.
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| The Trimble placed on top of my car's roof gathering data at the critical col of The Warren |
Once five minutes of
data were stored I closed the Trimble down, packed it away and drove back to
the confines of the track leading to Upper Barn where I changed out of my hill
gear, as I turned the key in the ignition the first drops of rain started to
fall, and by the time I had driven down the narrow lane in to Knighton the
streets were awash and the daylight had turned an exceedingly murky grey. I arrived in Newtown at 6.00pm and made it to
the pub to meet Eryl and John a couple of minutes later.
Survey Result:
The Warren (significant name change)
Summit Height: 403.8m (converted to OSGM15)
Summit Grid Reference: SO 31855 68590
Col Height: 376.4m (converted to OSGM15)
Col Grid Reference: SO 31273 70279
Drop: 27.45m
Dominance: 6.80%
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