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

Cerrig Blaen Cletwr Fawr (SN 707 925)

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 confirmed by LIDAR analysis conducted by Aled Williams, and the bwlch height and its location, the drop and status of the hill determined by contour interpolation from the OS Maps website.

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, 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 Pumlumon group of hills, which are situated in the northern part of Mid and West Wales (Region B, Sub-Region B2), and it is positioned with the A487 road and the Afon Dyfi (River Dovey) to its north-west, and has the small community of Furnace towards the north-west.

The hill appeared in the original Welsh 400m P30 list published on Geoff Crowder’s v-g.me website under the name of Esgair Foel-ddu, 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 that used to be hosted on the Geograph website and which is entitled the Interactive Coverage Map. 

Two of the better Ordnance Survey maps for name placement are the series of Six-Inch maps and the historic 1:25,000 map, and as the name of Cerrig Blaen Cletwr Fawr also appears adjacent to the summit of this hill on contemporary Ordnance Survey 1:25,000 Explorer maps, these maps were examined for clarification.  However, as one name is seemingly applied to a ridge and the other name seemingly applied to the stony ground taking in the summit of this hill, the Tithe map was consulted.

Extract from the Ordnance Survey series of Six-Inch maps

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

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 where the summit of this hill is situated is given the number 768 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 Cerrig Sheepwalk in the apportionments, with the details on the Tithe map appearing in the parish of Llangynfelyn and in the county named as Cardigan.

Extract from the apportionment

The sheepwalk named on the Tithe map is adjoined to the farm of Blaencletwr-fawr, which is situated to the south-west of this hill’s summit.  As the land where the summit of this hill is situated is named as a part of Blaencletwr-Fawr and as the summit feature is named as Cerrig Blaen Cletwr Fawr this name is now preferred to that of the ridge name.

Therefore, the name this hill is now listed by in the Y Pedwarau – The 400m Hills of Wales is Cerrig Blaen Cletwr Fawr, and this was derived from the contemporary Ordnance Survey 1:25,000 Explorer map, and also named on the Ordnance Survey series of Six-Inch maps and the historic 1:25,000 map.  With the name of the land taking in the summit of this hill named at the time of the Tithe as Cerrig and it being the sheepwalk of the farm of Blaencletwr-fawr.

The full details for the hill are:

Group:  Pumlumon

Name:  Cerrig Blaen Cletwr Fawr

Previously Listed Name:  Esgair Foel-ddu

OS 1:50,000 map:  135

Summit Height:  479.1m (LIDAR)

Summit Grid Reference:  SN 70765 92570 (LIDAR)

Bwlch Height:  c 433m (interpolation)

Bwlch Grid Reference:  SN 71076 92278 (interpolation)

Drop:  c 46m (LIDAR summit and interpolated bwlch)

Myrddyn Phillips and Aled Williams (January 2020)