Mapping Mountains – Significant Name Changes – 100m Twmpau

Bryniau (SH 579 711)

There has been a Significant Name Change to a hill that is listed in the 100m Twmpau, with the summit height, its location, the drop and status of the hill initially confirmed by LIDAR analysis, followed by a Trimble GeoXH 6000 summit survey, both conducted by Myrddyn Phillips with the latter taking place on 1^st October 2018.

Bryniau (SH 579 711)

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 Glyderau group of hills, which are situated in the north-western part of North Wales (Region A, Sub-Region A1), and is positioned with the A4087 road to its west and minor roads to its south and east, and has the small city of Bangor towards its north.

The hill originally appeared in the Hills to be surveyed sub list that accompanied the main 100m P30 list on Geoff Crowder’s v-g.me website under the name of Bangor Mountain, which is a name that is consistently applied on Ordnance Survey maps to land north-eastward from this hill’s summit. 

Bangor Mountain

117m

SH579711

114/115

17/263

Trig pillar.

  

During my early hill listing I paid little regard to name placement on the map, or the meaning of names and to what feature the name was appropriately applied to.  Therefore I prioritised names for listing purposes that I now understand are either inappropriate or where another name is viewed as being more appropriate.

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 770 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 not given an individual name on the Tithe, but is confirmed as being a part of Bryniau land; Bryniau being the old farm immediately below and to the north-east of the summit, with the details on the Tithe map appearing in the parish of Bangor and in the county named as Carnarvonshire [sic].

Extract from the apportionments

After visiting the hill I took the opportunity to call at the farm of Bryniau and met James Brown; the local farmer, who was working with a colleague in one of the barns, James is aged 49 and has lived and worked the land around this farm for the last twenty years.  After explaining my interest in upland place names James accompanied me back to the summit of the hill and told me that this hill is not Mynydd Bangor (Bangor Mountain), and then gave a detailed explanation to where the land is situated that this name is applicable to.  James did not know an individual name for this hill or that of the bounded field that the summit is situated in, but told me that the hill is a part of Bryniau, which he believed would have taken its name from the hill.

James Brown; the local farmer

Therefore, the name this hill is now listed by in the 100m Twmpau is Bryniau, and this was derived from local enquiry and the details given substantiated via the Tithe map.

The full details for the hill are:

Group:  Glyderau

Name:  Bryniau

Previously Listed Name:  Bangor Mountain 

  

OS 1:50,000 map:  114, 115

Summit Height:  117.6m (converted to OSGM15)

Summit Grid Reference:  SH 57971 71196

Bwlch Height:  87.4m (LIDAR)

Bwlch Grid Reference:  SH 57748 70845 (LIDAR)

 

Drop:  30.1m (Trimble summit and LIDAR bwlch)

For details on the summit survey of this hill

Myrddyn Phillips (February 2019)