Mapping Mountains – Significant Name Changes – Y Trichant – The 300m Hills of Wales

Hafod y Foel (SJ 030 478)

There has been a Significant Name Change to a hill that is listed in the Y Trichant – The 300m Hills of Wales, with the summit height, bwlch height and their locations, the drop and status of the hill derived from detail on contemporary Ordnance Survey maps.

LIDAR image of Hafod y Foel (SJ 030 478)

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

Y Trichant – The 300m Hills of Wales.  Welsh hills at or above 300m and below 400m in height that have 30m minimum drop, with an accompanying sub list entitled the Sub-Trichant with the criteria for this sub category being all Welsh hills at or above 300m and below 400m in height with 20m or more and below 30m of drop.  The list is authored by Myrddyn Phillips, with the Introduction to the list and the renaming of it appearing on Mapping Mountains on the 13th May 2017.

The hill is adjoined to the Mynydd Hiraethog group of hills which are situated in the north-eastern part of North Wales (Region A, Sub-Region A2), and it is encircled by minor roads with the B5105 road further to its north-west, the A5 road further to its south and the A494 road further to its east, and has the town of Corwen towards the south-east.

The hill appeared in the original Welsh 300m P30 list published on Geoff Crowder’s v-g.me website, under the partly invented and transposed name of Pen Hafoty Foel, with an accompanying note stating; Name from buildings to the South-East.

Pen Hafoty Foel

346m

SJ030478

116

264

Name from buildings to the South-East

During my early hill listing I thought it appropriate to either invent a name for a hill, or use a name that appeared near to the summit of the hill on Ordnance Survey maps of the day.  My preference was to use farm names and put Pen, Bryn or Moel in front of them.  This is not a practice that I now advocate as with time and inclination place-name data can be improved either by asking local people or by examining historic documents, through this form of research an appropriate name for the hill can usually be found. 

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

As this hill comprises bounded land the Tithe map was consulted.  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 36 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 Hafod y Foel in the apportionments, with the details on the Tithe map appearing in the parish of Bettws Gwerfil Goch [sic] and in the counties named as Denbigh and Merioneth.

Extract from the apportionments

Therefore, the name this hill is now listed by in the Y Trichant – The 300m Hills of Wales is Hafod y Foel, and this was derived from the Tithe map.

The full details for the hill are:

Group:  Mynydd Hiraethog

Name:  Hafod y Foel

Previously Listed Name:  Pen Hafoty Foel

OS 1:50,000 map:  116

Summit Height:  346m (spot height)

Summit Grid Reference:  SJ 03029 47804 (hand-held GPS via DoBIH)

Bwlch Height:  c 293m (interpolation)

Bwlch Grid Reference:  SJ 02852 48090 (interpolation)

Drop:  c 53m (spot height summit and interpolated bwlch)

Myrddyn Phillips (March 2020)