Wednesday 8 August 2018

Mapping Mountains – Significant Name Changes – 200m Twmpau


Coed Uchaf (SH 649 055)

There has been a Significant Name Change to a hill that is listed in the 200m Twmpau, with the summit height and drop of the hill being confirmed by a Trimble GeoXH 6000 survey which took place on the 14th May 2018.

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

200m Twmpau – Welsh hills at or above 200m and below 300m in height that have 30m minimum drop.  With the word Twmpau being an acronym standing for thirty welsh metre prominences and upward. 

The hill is adjoined to the Tarennydd range of hills which are situated in the south-western part of North Wales (Region A, Sub-Region A3), and it is positioned between two river valleys with the Afon Dysynni to its north-west and the Afon Fathew to its south, and has the small community of Abertrinant towards the west, Bryn-crug towards the south-west and Abergynolwyn towards the east north-east. 

Coed Uchaf (SH 649 055)

The hill appeared in the 200m P30 list on Geoff Crowder’s v-g.me website under the invented name of Bryn Coed-y-gof  with an accompanying note stating; Name from buildings to the West. 


Bryn Coed-y-gof
  217m
  124
23
  Name from buildings to the West


During my early hill listing I thought it appropriate to either invent a name for a hill, or use a name that appeared near to the summit of the hill on Ordnance Survey maps of the day.  My preference was to use farm names and put Pen, Bryn or Moel in front of them.  This 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 historic documents, through this form of research an appropriate name for the hill can usually be found.

When visiting this and adjoining hills I met a number of local farmers, including Stephen Jones who farms from Llanerch-goediog (SH 640 050), which is situated directly below the hill towards the south-west, Stephen is aged 55 and a Welsh speaker and except for three years when in university he has lived at this farm all of his life.  We spent a number of minutes talking about the hills and their names, and two other names that Stephen also gave me will be documented in separate Significant Name Changes posts.  Stephen told me that this hill is a part of Tomos Lewis’ land, who farms from Nant-y-mynach (SH 644 048), and that it is known as Coed Uchaf, with lower land also known as Coed Canol and Coed Isaf.

Stephen Jones

I later met Joanne Redman on the summit of this hill, Joanne is Tomos’ daughter and was out on her quad bike taking photos of her father’s farm, we talked about this and other hills and Joanne told me that the name of the land, including where the summit of this hill is situated, is Coed Uchaf, she also confirmed that the names of Coed Canol and Coed Isaf are used for lower adjacent land and suggested that I talk with her father, whose telephone number she kindly gave me.

Joanne Redman

The following day I contacted Tomos and two days later then visited him, Tomos is aged 60 and a Welsh speaker, and has lived at Nant-y-mynach for 54 years, having moved there from the council houses in Abertrinant.  During our conversations Tomos proved very knowledgeable and gave me many hill names that do not appear on any Ordnance Survey map, and one of them was the name for the land that takes in the summit of this hill; Coed Uchaf.

Tomos Lewis

Therefore, the name this hill is now listed by in the 200m Twmpau is Coed Uchaf and this name was derived from local enquiry.


The full details for the hill are:

Group:  Tarennydd

Name:  Coed Uchaf 

Previously Listed Name:  Bryn Coed-y-gof 

Summit Height:  216.5m (converted to OSGM15)

OS 1:50,000 map:  124

Summit Grid Reference:  SH 64901 05582 
 
Drop:  41.0m (converted to OSGM15)

 
The Trimble GeoXH 6000 gathering data at the summit of Coed Uchaf


Myrddyn Phillips (August 2018)




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