Mapping Mountains – Hill Reclassifications – Marilyns

Raw Head (SJ 508 548) – Marilyn reclassified to Submarilyn

This is one in a series of retrospective Hill Reclassification posts that detail hills whose status has altered in the listing of the English Marilyns.  These reclassification posts will give details of hills where I have had direct association with their change of status, and they will tie in with a forthcoming Change Register giving detail to this list and its alterations since publication in the TACit Tables booklet

The listing of English Marilyns was published in booklet format by TACit Tables in June 1997 and entitled The Hewitts and Marilyns of England.  The Marilyns were originally listed as an all British compilation and were published by Cicerone Press in 1992 in the book entitled The Relative Hills of Britain.  The list compiler for the Marilyns is Alan Dawson.

When the English Marilyns list was published in booklet format there were 178 qualifying hills with a further 39 English Submarilyns also included.  The criteria for Marilyn status being any hill that has a drop of at least 150m, irrespective of their height, with the criteria for Submarilyn being any hill that has 140m or more and below 150m of drop.

The Hewitts and Marilyns of England by Alan Dawson

The details for the hill reclassification appear below:

The name of the hill is Raw Head, and it is situated in the sandstone hills of Cheshire, and is positioned with the A41 road to its west and the A534 road to its south, and has the town of Wrecsam (Wrexham) towards the west and the town of Nantwich towards the east.

Prior to this hill’s reclassification to Submarilyn status it was listed as a Marilyn with 150m of drop based on the 227m summit spot height that appears on the Ordnance Survey 1:50,000 Landranger and 1:25,000 Explorer map that is adjoined to a triangulation pillar and a 77m col height.

Gathering data at the col of Raw Head

The Leica 530 set-up position at the col of Raw Head

As its 150m listed drop value was the minimum required for Marilyn status it was prioritised for a GNSS survey and this took place on the 9^th and 16^th January 2009.  The col was surveyed on the 9^th January by John Barnard, Graham Jackson, Janet Jackson and Myrddyn Phillips and the summit was surveyed on the 16^th January by John Barnard, Graham Jackson and Myrddyn Phillips using a Leica 530 with various collection times of data from 15 minutes to 40 minutes.  The survey resulted in a 227.1m summit height and a 78.7m col height, with these values giving this hill 148.4m of drop.

Gathering data at the summit of Raw Head

The reclassification of this hill from Marilyn to Submarilyn status was accepted by the list author; Alan Dawson, and its new classification augmented in to the listing of Marilyns and announced on the 16^th April 2009.

The full details for the hill are:

Name:  Raw Head

OS 1:50,000 map:  117

OS 1:25,000 map:  257

Summit Height:  227.1m (converted to OSGM15)

Summit Grid Reference:  SJ 50844 54841

Col Height:  78.7m (converted to OSGM15)

Col Grid Reference:  SJ 52870 43921

Drop:  148.4m

Myrddyn Phillips (February 2020)