Mapping Mountains – Significant Name Changes – 200m Twmpau

Church Hill Common (SO 517 105)

There has been a Significant Name Change to a hill that is listed in the 200m Twmpau, with the summit height, bwlch height and their locations, the drop and status of the hill confirmed by LIDAR analysis conducted by Myrddyn Phillips.

LIDAR image of Church Hill Common (SO 517 105)

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

200m Twmpau - Welsh hills at or above 200m and below 300m in height with 30m minimum drop, with an accompanying sub list entitled the 200m Sub-Twmpau with the criteria for this sub category being all Welsh hills at or above 200m and below 300m in height with 20m or more and below 30m of drop, with the word Twmpau being an acronym standing for thirty welsh metre prominences and upward.

The hill is adjoined to the Gwent Is Coed group of hills which are situated in the south-eastern part of South Wales (Region C, Sub-Region C3), and it is positioned with the B4293 road and the A40 road to the west and the A466 road and the Afon Gwy (River Wye) to the east, and has the town of Trefynwy (Mounmouth) towards the north-west.

When the original 200m height band of Welsh P30 hills were published on Geoff Crowder’s v-g.me website this hill was listed under the name of Troypark Wood Top, with an accompanying note stating; Name from wood to the West.

Troypark Wood Top

232m

SO518106

162

14

Name from wood to the West

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 or as in this instance transpose the name of a wood and add the word Top to it.  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 the name Church Hill Common appears close to this hill’s summit on the contemporary Ordnance Survey 1:25,000 Explorer map, the land boundary of this common was examined on the Tithe map, and at the time of the Tithe the summit of this hill was situated on land associated with this common.

Therefore, the name this hill is now listed by in the 200m Twmpau is Church Hill Common, and this name was derived from the Ordnance Survey 1:25,000 Explorer map with the Tithe map confirming the summit position at the time of the Tithe to be situated on land associated with this common.

The full details for the hill are:

Group:  Gwent Is Coed

Name:  Church Hill Common

Previously Listed Name:  Troypark Wood Top 

  

OS 1:50,000 map:  162

Summit Height:  232.7m (LIDAR)

Summit Grid Reference:  SO 51785 10565 & SO 51788 10566 (LIDAR)

Bwlch Height:  202.3m (LIDAR)

Bwlch Grid Reference:  SO 51524 10349 (LIDAR)

Drop:  30.3m (LIDAR)

Myrddyn Phillips (June)