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 determined by a Leica 530 survey conducted by John Barnard, Graham Jackson and Myrddyn Phillips on the 26^th February 2009, and the bwlch height and its location, the drop and status of the hill confirmed by LIDAR analysis conducted by Aled Williams.

The Trimble GeoXH 6000 gathering data at the summit of Garreg y Noddfa

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; with the list being co-authored by Myrddyn Phillips and Aled Williams and published on Mapping Mountains in Google Doc format.

The hill is adjoined to the Hirddywel 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 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.

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

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

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 Llangirrig [sic] 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 93041 76174 (Leica 530)

Bwlch Height:  436.7m (LIDAR)

Bwlch Grid Reference:  SN 93730 74216 (LIDAR)

Drop:  59.0m (LIDAR)

For details on the Trimble GeoXH 6000 survey of this hill

Myrddyn Phillips and Aled Williams (November 2019)