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

Ashcombe Hill (SS 782 407)

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 Ashcombe Hill (SS 782 407)

The criteria for the list that this significant 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 included 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 Dunkery Beacon group of hills, which are situated in Exmoor in the county of Somerset, and is positioned with the B3223 road to its west and the B3224 road to its south, and has the small community of Simonsbath towards the south-west.

This hill was not included when the listing that is now known as The Fours - The 400m Hills of England was originally compiled as it did not meet the criteria then used for the Hills to be surveyed sub list, and therefore it was not included when the list was uploaded to the RHB Yahoo group file database.  

When the 1^st edition of The Fours was published by Europeaklist in December 2013 this hill appeared under the name of Little Ashcombe, which is a prominent name that appears just below the summit of this hill on the contemporary Ordnance Survey 1:50,000 Landranger and 1:25,000 Explorer map. 

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

Since the original publication of this list there have been a number of maps made available online.  Some of these are historic such as the series of Six-Inch maps on the National Library of Scotland website.  Whilst others were digitally updated such as the Ordnance Survey Vector Map Local that was hosted on the Geograph website and which was entitled the Interactive Coverage Map, whilst others are current and digitally updated such as the interactive mapping on the Magic Maps and WalkLakes websites.  One of the historic maps now available online is the Ordnance Survey One-Inch ‘Old Series’ map, and it is this map that forms the basis for the change in the listed name of this hill.

The One-Inch ‘Old Series’ map was the first map that Ordnance Survey produced, and their publication culminated from the whole of Britain being surveyed between 1791 and 1874 and the detail gathered therein produced at a scale of one inch to the mile and published in sheet format between 1805 and 1874.  The One-Inch ‘Old Series’ maps for the whole of England are now available online; they are also available in map format as enlarged and re-projected versions to match the scale and dimensions of the Ordnance Survey 1:50,000 Landranger series and are published by Cassini.  This series of maps form another important part in the study of upland place-names and bridge the timeframe leading up to the production of the Ordnance Survey base map of the Six-Inch series, and importantly for this hill and its listed name, it is this map that places the name Ashcombe Hill just below the summit of this hill and this is considered more appropriate for the hill rather than that of Little Ashcombe.

Extract from the Ordnance Survey One-Inch 'Old Series' map

Therefore, the name this hill is now listed by in The Fours - The 400m Hills of England is Ashcombe Hill and this was derived from the Ordnance Survey One-Inch 'Old Series' map. 

The full details for the hill are:

Group:  Dunkery Beacon

Name:  Ashcombe Hill

Previously Listed Name:  Little Ashcombe

 

OS 1:50,000 map:  180

Summit Height:  457.4m (LIDAR)

Summit Grid Reference:  SS 78281 40707 (LIDAR) 

 

Col Height:  435.3m (LIDAR)

Col Grid Reference:  SS 76942 40842 (LIDAR)

Drop:  22.0m (LIDAR)

Myrddyn Phillips and Aled Williams (April 2019)