Mapping Mountains – Significant Name Changes – Y Trichant

Fridd Top Llety (SJ 089 167)

There has been a Significant Name Change to a hill that is listed in the Y Trichant, with the summit height, summit location and drop of the hill being confirmed by a Trimble GeoXH survey which took place on the 5^th April 2018.

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

Y Trichant – All Welsh hills at and above 300m and below 400m in height that have 30m minimum drop, with an accompanying sub category entitled the Sub-Trichant consisting of all Welsh hills at and above 300m and below 400m in height that have 20m or more and below 30m of drop.  The list is authored by Myrddyn Phillips and the Introduction to the list and the re-naming and publication history was published on Mapping Mountains on the 13^th May 2017.

The hill is adjoined to the Y Berwyn range of hills which are situated in the south-eastern part of North Wales (Region A, Sub-Region A4), and is positioned between the B 4393 road to its north and the B 4382 road to its west, and has the small community of Llanfihangel-yng-Ngwynfa towards the west.

Ffridd Top Llety (SJ 089 167)

The hill appeared in the 300m P30 list on Geoff Crowder’s v-g.me website under the name of Bryn, with its 347m map heighted summit positioned at SJ 085 168.  Since this hill was first listed the Ordnance Survey Interactive Coverage Map hosted on the Geograph website has become available and this map shows a second 347m map heighted summit positioned at SJ 089 167, these will be referred to as the westerly top and easterly top respectively in parts of this article.

Bryn

347m

SJ085169

125

239

As these two summits of this hill comprise bounded land the details for each were examined on the Tithe map.  The term Tithe map is generally given to a map of a Welsh or English parish or township and which was prepared after the 1836 Tithe Commutation Act.  This act allowed tithes to be paid in cash rather than goods.  The Tithe maps gave names of owners and occupiers of land in each parish and importantly for place-name research they also included the name of enclosed land.  This enclosed land is usually based on a field system, however not every field is given a name, but many are and especially so in Wales.

Extract from the Tithe map showing the name of the westerly field

Extract from the apportionments showing the name of the westerly field

The enclosed land where the westerly top of this hill is situated is given the number 738 on the Tithe map, and the enclosed land where the easterly top of this hill is situated is given the number 663 on the Tithe map, these can be cross referenced against the apportionments; it is these apportionments that give the name of the owner or occupier of the land as well as the name of the land.  The land where the summit of the westerly top is situated is named as Cae Mawr, and the land where the summit of the easterly top is situated is named as Cefnydd, with the details on the Tithe map appearing in the county named as Montgomery and in the parish of Llanfihangel.

Extract from the Tithe map showing the name of the easterly field

Extract from the apportionments showing the name of the easterly field

However, these names were those known for the enclosed fields at the time of the Tithe, and for listing purposes the names used should be those that the enclosed fields are nowadays known as, if indeed different to those from the time of the Tithe.  And the person to verify the present day name for each field is the local farmer whose land the westerly and easterly top of this hill is situated on, and the local farmer is Martin Davies.

When descending the hill I flagged Martin down who along with a colleague was driving a quad bike up the track to retrieve a dead lamb.  Martin is aged 54 and farms from Penisarllan, which is to the west of the hill and on the periphery of Llanfihangel-yng-Ngwynfa.  Martin explained that his Great Grandfather moved to Penisarllen as a tenant farmer in the 1930’s and that his father had bought the land from Sir Watkins Williams-Wynn in the 1950’s and 1960’s.  During our conversation Martin gave me a number of field names, including Cae Llan which was the field where we were standing and which at the time of the Tithe was known as Cae y Llan, however all other field names that Martin gave me were different to the time of the Tithe except for Cae Mawr, but this was the name given to a field a little north-east of his farm and not to the westerly top of the hill.

Martin Davies

The other field names that Martin gave were; Cae Llwybr which he said was a four acre square field, Ffridd Dan Fence which is not surprisingly the field under the fence and placed adjacent to the easterly top and Cae Chwarel which is the field adjacent to the old disused quarry.

I then asked Martin about the two higher fields, with the westerly one being above us from where we were standing, he said that this field is known as Bryn as it was adjoined to the old farmstead of Bryn which is situated to the south-east of the field, whilst the easterly one is known as Ffridd Top Llety as it was adjoined to the Llety farm, which is situated to the north-east of the field.

Therefore, as LIDAR analysis and Trimble data give the easterly field as higher than the westerly field the name this hill is now listed by in the Y Trichant is Ffridd Top Llety, and this was derived from local enquiry.

The Trimble GeoXH 6000 gathering data at the summit of Ffridd Top Llety

The full details for the hill are:

Group:  Y Berwyn

Name:  Fridd Top Llety

Previously Listed Name:  Bryn 

Summit Height:  346.6m (converted to OSGM15)

OS 1:50,000 map:  125

Summit Grid Reference:  SJ 08997 16748 

 

Drop:  69.6m (converted to OSGM15)

For details on the survey of Ffridd Top Llety

Myrddyn Phillips (May 2018)