Mapping Mountains – Significant Name Changes – 30-99m Twmpau and Y Trechol – The Dominant Hills of Wales

Graig y Llafur (SN 590 052)

There has been a Significant Name Change to a hill that is listed in the 30-99m Twmpau and Y Trechol – The Dominant Hills of Wales, with the summit and bwlch height and position confirmed by LIDAR analysis conducted by Myrddyn Phillips.

LIDAR image of Graig y Llafur

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

30-99m Twmpau - Welsh hills at or above 30m and below 100m in height with 30m minimum drop, with an accompanying sub list entitled the 30-99m Sub-Twmpau with the criteria for this sub category being all Welsh hills at or above 30m and below 100m 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.

Y Trechol - The Dominant Hills of Wales - Welsh P30 hills whose prominence  equal or exceed half that of their absolute height.  With the criteria for Lesser Dominant status being those addition Welsh P30 hills whose prominence is 33.33% or more and below 50% of their absolute height, with the Introduction to the Mapping Mountains publication of this list appearing on the 3^rd December 2015.

The hill is adjoined to the Mynydd Penlle’rcastell group of hills, which are situated in the western part of South Wales (Region C, Sub-Region C1), and is positioned with the Afon Llwchwr (River Loughor), the B 4297, the A 48 and the M 4 all to the west, and has the town of Pontarddulais towards the south south-east.

The hill originally appeared in the 30-99m P30 list on Geoff Crowder’s v-g.me website under the name of Tal y Fan with an accompanying note stating; Name from buildings to the South-West.

Tal y Fan

48m

SN591053

159

178

Name from buildings to the South-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 transpose the farm name for that of the hill.  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 1665 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 Graig y Llafur in the apportionments, with the details on the Tithe map appearing in the parish of Llandeilo Tal-y-bont and in the county named as Glamorganshire.

Extract from the apportionments

Therefore, the name this hill is now listed by in the 30-99m Twmpau and Y Trechol – The Dominant Hills of Wales is Graig y Llafur, and this was derived from the Tithe map.

The full details for the hill are:

Group:  Mynydd Penlle’rcastell

Name:  Graig y Llafur

Previously Listed Name:  Tal y Fan 

OS 1:50,000 map:  159

Summit Height:  48.3m (LIDAR)

Summit Grid Reference:  SN 59070 05280 (LIDAR)

Bwlch Height:  13.3m (LIDAR, natural bwlch)

Bwlch Grid Reference:  SN 59169 04870 (LIDAR, natural bwlch) 

Drop:  35.1m (LIDAR)

Dominance:  72.57% (LIDAR)

Myrddyn Phillips (January 2019)