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

Exford South Common (SS 808 374)

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 initially conducted by Aled Williams and subsequently by Myrddyn Phillips.

LIDAR image of Exford South Common (SS 808 374)

The criteria for the list that this summit relocation 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-Fours, the 390m Sub-Fours and the 390m Double Sub-Fours.  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 Dunkery Beacon group of hills, which are situated in Exmoor in the county of Somerset, and it is positioned with the B3224 road to its north and minor roads to its west and east, and has the villages of Simonsbath to the west north-west and Exford to the east north-east.

When the listing that is now known as The Fours - The 400m Hills of England was originally compiled this hill appeared under the transposed and invented name of Thornehead Hill [typo; Thornemead Hill], and this was also the name the hill appeared as when the list was uploaded to the RHB Yahoo group file database.  Subsequently the hill was listed under the point (Pt. 412m) notation in the 1^st edition of The Fours when published by Europeaklist in December 2013. 

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

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 the word Top or Hill after the name.  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.

As the summit of this hill comprises bounded land the details for it 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 these are documented in the apportionments that accompany the Tithe map.

The enclosed land where the summit of this hill is situated is given a number on the Tithe map, this 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 this hill is situated is named Exford South Common on the Tithe map.

Therefore, the name this hill is now listed by in The Fours - The 400m Hills of England is Exford South Common and this was derived from the 1840 Exford Tithe map. 

The full details for the hill are:

Group:  Dunkery Beacon

Name:  Exford South Common

Previously Listed Name:  Pt. 412m (originally listed as Thornemead Hill)  

OS 1:50,000 map:  181

Summit Height:  411.6m (LIDAR)

Summit Grid Reference:  SS 80892 37483 (LIDAR)  

Col Height:  377.2m (LIDAR)

Col Grid Reference:  SS 80338 38959 (LIDAR)

Drop:  34.4m (LIDAR)

Myrddyn Phillips and Aled Williams (October 2018)