Mapping Mountains – Significant Name Changes – 30-99m Twmpau

Trwyn y Witch (SS 887 727)

There has been a Significant Name Change to a hill that is listed in the 30-99m 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.

LIDAR image of Trwyn y Witch (SS 887 727)

The criteria for the list 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.

The hill is adjoined to the Bro Morgannwg group of hills, which are situated in the southern part of South Wales (Region C, Sub-Region C2), and it is positioned with the B4524 road to its north and the B4265 road to its east, and has the small community of Saint-y-brid (St. Brides Major) towards the north north-east.

The hill appeared in the original 30-99m Welsh P30 list on Geoff Crowder’s v-g.me website under a partly invented name of Pen Trwyn y Witch, with an accompanying note stating; Name from headland to the West.

 

Pen Trwyn y Witch

63m

SS887727

170

151

Name from headland to the 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 name of a headland and add the word Pen to it.  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.

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

The land this hill incorporates takes in the headland that encloses the hill on its west and south, and as this headland is named Trwyn y Witch on contemporary Ordnance Survey map, for listing purposes this is an appropriate name to use for that of the hill, therefore there is no need to add the word Pen to it.

Therefore, the name this hill is now listed by in the 30-99m Twmpau is Trwyn y Witch, and this was derived from contemporary Ordnance Survey 1:50,000 Landranger and 1:25,000 Explorer maps. 

The full details for the hill are:

Group:  Bro Morgannwg

Name:  Trwyn y Witch

Previously Listed Name:  Pen Trwyn y Witch

 

OS 1:50,000 map:  170

Summit Height:  62.8m (LIDAR)

Summit Grid Reference:  SS 88731 72715 (LIDAR)

Bwlch Height:  34.4m (LIDAR)

Bwlch Grid Reference:  SS 88945 72698 (LIDAR) 

Drop:  28.4m (LIDAR)

Myrddyn Phillips (October 2019)