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

Garreg y Noddfa (SN 930 761)

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 location derived by a Leica 530 survey conducted by John Barnard, Graham Jackson and Myrddyn Phillips, and the bwlch height and its location, the drop and status of the hill derived by LIDAR analysis initially conducted by Aled Williams and subsequently by Myrddyn Phillips.

The summit of Garreg y Noddfa (SN 930 761)

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 that have 30m minimum drop, accompanying the main list are five categories of sub hills; 500m Sub-Pedwarau, 500m Double Sub-Pedwarau, 400m Sub-Pedwarau, 390m Sub-Pedwarau and the 390m Double Sub-Pedwarau.  The list is co-authored by Myrddyn Phillips and Aled Williams and is published on Mapping Mountains in Google Doc format.

Y Pedwarau - The 400m Hills of Wales by Myrddyn Phillips and Aled Williams

The hill is adjoined to the Hirddywel group of hills, which are situated in the north-eastern part of South Wales (Region B, Sub-Region B2), and it is positioned with the A470 road and the Afon Gwy (River Wye) to its west and the B4518 road to its east, and has the town of Llanidloes towards the north and the town of Rhaeadr Gwy (Rhayader) towards the south-east.

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

The hill appeared in the original Welsh 400m P30 list on Geoff Crowder’s v-g.me website under the transposed name of Bryn Titli, which is a prominent name that appears close to the summit of the hill on the contemporary Ordnance Survey 1:50,000 Landranger and 1:25,000 Explorer map.

Bryn Titli

497m

SN930762

136/147

214

 

The listed name of this hill was revised to Fawnog Gnapiog in the 1^st edition of the Y Pedwarau published by Europeaklist in May 2013.  With this revised name being one of the main named features of the hill as opposed to that of Bryn Titli which has been placed consistently by Ordnance Survey adjacent to a 492.7m high hill positioned at SN 93383 75719. 

Extract from the Ordnance Survey series of Six-Inch maps

Since publication of the 1^st edition of Y Pedwarau the Tithe maps for Wales have become available online.  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 on Tithe maps is given a number that 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.  However, in this instance it is the actual Tithe map that gives the name of Garreg y Noddfa beside the summit of this hill.  With the details on the Tithe map appearing in the parish of Llangurig and in the county named as Montgomery.

Therefore, the name this hill is now listed by in the Y Pedwarau – The 400m Hills of Wales is Garreg y Noddfa, and this was derived from the Tithe map.

The full details for the hill are:

Group:  Hirddywel

Name:  Garreg y Noddfa

Previously Listed Name:  Fawnog Gnapiog

OS 1:50,000 map:  136, 147

Summit Height:  495.7m (Leica 530, converted to OSGM15)

Summit Grid Reference:  SN 93038 76169 (Leica 530)

Bwlch Height:  436.8m (LIDAR)

Bwlch Grid Reference:  SN 93726 74215 (LIDAR)

Drop:  58.8m (Leica 530 summit and LIDAR bwlch)

Myrddyn Phillips and Aled Williams (November 2019)