Mapping Mountains – Significant Name Changes – 100m Twmpau

Parc Llwyn Du (SN 428 188)

There has been a Significant Name Change to a hill that is listed in the 100m Twmpau, with the summit height and its location, drop and status of the hill initially confirmed by LIDAR analysis and subsequently by a summit survey with the Trimble GeoXH 6000 which were conducted by Myrddyn Phillips, with latter taking place on the 31^st July 2018.

Parc Llwyn Du (SN 428 188)

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

100m Twmpau - Welsh hills at or above 100m and below 200m in height with 30m minimum drop, with an accompanying sub list entitled the 100m Sub-Twmpau with the criteria for this sub category being all Welsh hills at or above 100m and below 200m in height with 20m or more and below 30m of drop, with the word Twmpau being an acronym standing for thirty welsh metre prominences and upward.

The hill is adjoined to the Mynydd Sylen group of hills, which are situated in the western part of South Wales (Region C, Sub-Region C1), and is positioned with the A 48 road to its south and the B 4300 road to its north, and has the town of Caerfyrddin (Carmarthen) to the north-west.

The hill originally appeared in the 100m P30 list on Geoff Crowder’s v-g.me website under the invented name of Bryn Pen-sarn, with an accompanying note stating; Name from town to the North-West.

 

Bryn Pen-sarn

104m

SN423187

159

177

Name from town to the North-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 or as in this instance use the name given to a village and precede it with the word Bryn.  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 especially so in Wales.

Extract from the Tithe map

The enclosed land where the summit of this hill is situated is given the number 179 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 as Park Llwyndu in the apportionments, with the details on the Tithe map appearing in the parish of Llangunnor and in the county named as Carmarthen.

Extract from the apportionments

Therefore, the name this hill is now listed by in the 100m Twmpau is Parc Llwyn Du, and this was derived from the Tithe map.

The full details for the hill are:

Group:  Mynydd Sylen

Name:  Parc Llwyn Du

Previously Listed Name:  Bryn Pen-sarn

  

OS 1:50,000 map:  159

Summit Height:  104.3m (converted to OSGM15, natural summit)

Summit Grid Reference:  SN 42895 18827

Bwlch Height:  73.4m (LIDAR)

Bwlch Grid Reference:  SN 43247 18917 (LIDAR) 

Drop:  30.8m (Trimble summit and LIDAR bwlch)

For details on the summit survey of Parc Llwyn Du

Myrddyn Phillips (December 2018)