Mapping Mountains – Significant Name Changes – Y Pedwarau – The 400m Hills of Wales

Lower House Bank (SO 142 790)

There has been a Significant Name Change to a hill that is listed in the Y Pedwarau – The 400m Hills of Wales, with the summit height and its position taken from Ordnance Survey map data and hand-held GPS grid references supplied to the DoBIH respectively, and the drop ascertained from a basic levelling survey of the bwlch conducted by Myrddyn Phillips on the 17^th September 2003.

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

Y Pedwarau – The 400m Hills of Wales.  Welsh hills at or above 400m and below 500m in height with 30m minimum drop, the list is co-authored by Myrddyn Phillips and Aled Williams and is published on Mapping Mountains in Google Doc format.

The hill is adjoined to the Maelienydd group of hills, which are situated in the north-eastern part of Mid and West Wales (Region B, Sub-Region B1), and it is positioned with the B4355 road to its east and north, the A483 road to its west and the B4356 to its south, and has the village of Felindre towards the north-east and the village of Llanbadarn Fynydd towards the west south-west.

The hill appeared in the original Welsh 400m P30 list on Geoff Crowder’s v-g.me website under the name of Ty’n-y-ddôl Hill, which is a prominent name that appears beside the summit of this hill on contemporary Ordnance Survey maps.  This is also the name the hill was listed by in the 1^st edition of the Y Pedwarau published by Europeaklist in May 2013.

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

Since publication of the 1^st edition of Y Pedwarau there have been a number of Ordnance Survey 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 are current and digitally updated such as the Vector Map Local hosted on the Geograph website and which is entitled the Interactive Coverage Map, and it is the series of Ordnance Survey Six-Inch maps that name the area taking in the summit of this hill as Lower House Bank, with this name being substantiated on the 1857 Enclosure Map, and in use on contemporary Ordnance Survey 1:50,000 Landranger and 1:25,000 Explorer maps, with the name of Ty’n-y-ddôl Hill applicable to adjacent land to the north of this hill’s summit.

Extract from the Ordnance Survey series of Six-Inch maps

Therefore, the name this hill is now listed by in the Y Pedwarau – The 400m Hills of Wales is Lower House Bank and this was derived from the Ordnance Survey series of Six-Inch maps and substantiated by the 1857 Enclosure Map as well as appearing on contemporary Ordnance Survey 1:50,000 Landranger and 1:25,000 Explorer maps.

The full details for the hill are:

Group:  Maelienydd

Name:  Lower House Bank

Previously Listed Name:  Ty’n-y-ddôl Hill

OS 1:50,000 map:  136, 148

Summit Height:  484m (spot height)

Summit Grid Reference:  SO 14240 79030 (hand-held GPS via DoBIH)

Bwlch Height:  c 432m (based on drop value)

Bwlch Grid Reference:  SO 12679 79964 (interpolation)

Drop:  c 52m (basic levelling survey of bwlch)

Myrddyn Phillips and Aled Williams (November 2019)