Pedwar Erw (SS 864 837)
There has been a Significant Name Change to a hill
that is now listed in the 100m Twmpau,
with the summit height, bwlch height and their locations, the drop and status
of the hill confirmed by LIDAR analysis conducted by Myrddyn Phillips.
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| LIDAR image of Pedwar Erw |
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 Cymoedd Morgannwg
group of hills, which are situated in the central
part of South Wales (Region C, Sub-Region C2), and it forms a part of landscaped ground that once
made up the Margam opencast mine, and is encircled by minor roads to its north,
west and east and has the B4281 road and the small communities of Cefn Cribwr
and Kenfig Hill towards its south.
This hill did not appear in the original 100m
height band of Welsh P30 hills when they were published on Geoff Crowder’s
v-g.me website as contemporary Ordnance Survey 1:50,000 Landranger and 1:25,000
Explorer maps of the day showed the opencast mine without any ring contours of
note.
 |
| Extract from the Ordnance Survey 1:25,000 Explorer map |
This area was re-examined when the OS Maps website
became available online. This is the
replacement for OS Get-a-map and has contours at 5m intervals and for the
majority of land comprising old mine workings it shows present day contours, as
opposed to the blank space showed on the counterparts of the 1:50,000
Landranger and 1:25,000 Explorer maps.
However, it was not until LIDAR became available
that the details for this hill could be accurately re-assessed. The LIDAR (Light Detection & Ranging)
technique produced highly accurate height data that is now freely available for
much of England and Wales.
Prior to OS Maps and LIDAR analysis this hill was
not classified as it had not appeared in any known listing of hills. Therefore, although there is no change in
this hill’s listed name it is worth categorising under the heading of
Significant Name Changes as the name this hill is now listed by comes from the
Tithe map.
As the ground that once made up the summit of this
hill comprised 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 467 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 Pedair [sic] Erw
in the apportionments, with the details on the Tithe map appearing in the parish of Lalestone and in the
county named as Glamorgan.
 |
| Extract from the apportionments |
After examining the Tithe map I made local enquiries
and contacted Randall Clatworthy who is now aged 79 and was born just to the
east of where this hill is situated in Ffordd y Gyfraith and subsequently lived
at Cefn Parc which is just to the north of this hill. Randall now lives in Cefn Cribwr to the south
of this hill and told me that this and its adjacent hill are known collectively
as the Opencast Mountains. However, for
historic purposes the Tithe name of Pedwar Erw is being prioritised.
Therefore, the name this hill is now listed by in
the 100m Twmpau is Pedwar Erw, and
this was derived from the Tithe map.
The full details for the hill are:
Group: Cymoedd
Morgannwg
Name: Pedwar Erw
Previously Listed Name:
previously not listed
OS 1:50,000 map: 170
Summit Height: 131.0m
(LIDAR)
Summit Grid Reference:
SS
86413 83767 (LIDAR)
Bwlch Height:
98.4m (LIDAR)
Bwlch Grid Reference:
SS 86635 84031 (LIDAR)
Drop: 32.5m (LIDAR)
Myrddyn Phillips (May 2019)
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