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

Pt. 422.3m (NY 424 233)

There has been a Significant Name Change to a hill that is listed in 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 subsequent LIDAR analysis conducted by Myrddyn Phillips.

LIDAR image of Pt. 422.3m (NY 424 233)

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 list was published by Mapping Mountains Publications on the 24^th April 2018.

The hill is situated in the Eastern Fells of the Lake District and is placed in Region 34, Section 34C with its Cardinal Hill being Helvellyn (NY 342 151).  The hill is positioned between the A5091 road to its west and the A592 road to its east and has a minor road directly to its north, and has the small community of Watermillock towards the east south-east.

When the listing that is now known as The Fours - The 400m Hills of England was originally compiled this hill appeared under the name of Underwood, this was also the name it appeared as when the list was uploaded to the RHB Yahoo group file database.  Subsequently the hill was listed as Watermillock Fell in the 1st edition of The Fours when the list was published by Europeaklist in December 2013. 

Hill list authors are prone to list a hill by the name that appears nearest to its summit on contemporary Ordnance Survey maps, with little consideration for its local or historical confirmation, or whether map placement is appropriate, and in the case of this hill the name of Underwood has been consistently applied to a feature or a house to the east of the hill.  This form of supplanting a name is not a practice that is now advocated as with time and inclination place-name data can be improved either by asking local people or by examining historical documents, through this form of research an appropriate name for the hill can usually be found.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 series of Six-Inch maps

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

Prior to publication of the 2^nd edition of this list enquiries were made with two well-known Lake District guide book authors, resulting in this hill being described as ‘nameless’, and the advice that ‘one would need to talk to genuine locals and shepherds to give definitive answers’. 

Therefore, the name this hill is now listed by in The Fours - The 400m Hills of England is Pt. 422.3m and this follows the standard practice of using the point notation when a name of the hill is not forthcoming either from local enquiry, contemporary maps or historical documentation.  

The full details for the hill are:

Group:  Helvellyn

Name:  Pt. 422.3m (LIDAR)

Previously Listed Name:  Watermillock Fell 

OS 1:50,000 map:  90

Summit Height:  422.3m (LIDAR)

Summit Grid Reference:  NY 42451 23324 (LIDAR)  

Col Height:  384.8m (LIDAR)

Col Grid Reference:  NY 41905 22650 (LIDAR)

Drop:  37.5m (LIDAR)

Myrddyn Phillips and Aled Williams (May 2018)