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

Flake Moss (SE 080 080)

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 conducted by Myrddyn Phillips. 

LIDAR image of Flake Moss (SE 080 080)

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 listed 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 Bleaklow Head group of hills, which are situated in the southern Pennines, and it is positioned with the A635 road to its immediate south, and has the town of Meltham to its north-east and the village of Marsden to its north-west.

When the 1^st edition of the The Fours was published by Europeaklist in December 2013, this hill was listed as Little Moss, which is a prominent name that appears to the south of the summit on the contemporary Ordnance Survey 1:25,000 Explorer map.

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

Hill list authors are prone to list a hill by the name that appears nearest to its summit on contemporary Ordnance Surveys maps, with little consideration for its local or historical confirmation, or whether map placement is appropriate, and therefore when the 2^nd edition of the The Fours – The 400m Hills of England was published by Mapping Mountains Publications in April 2018, this hill was listed as Flake Moss, with this considered more appropriate than that of Little Moss, as evidenced by their respective positions on historic Ordnance Survey maps.

Extract from the Ordnance Survey series of Six-Inch maps

Therefore, the name this hill is now listed by in The Fours  The 400m Hills of England is Flake Moss and this was derived from studying contemporary and historic Ordnance Survey maps.  

The full details for the hill are:

Group:  Bleaklow Head

Name:  Flake Moss

Previously Listed Name:  Little Moss  

OS 1:50,000 map:  110

Summit Height:  479.3m (LIDAR)

Summit Grid Reference:  SE 08079 08040 (LIDAR)

Col Height:  454.5m (LIDAR)

Col Grid Reference:  SE 07770 08548 (LIDAR)

Drop:  24.8m (LIDAR)

 

Myrddyn Phillips and Aled Williams (September 2018)