Mapping Mountains – Summit Relocations – The Fours – The 400m Hills of England

Cook’s Study Hill (SE 131 041)

There has been a Summit Relocation to a hill that is listed in the The Fours – The 400m Hills of England, with the summit height, col height and their locations, the drop and status of the hill derived from detail on historic and contemporary maps produced from Ordnance Survey data and confirmed by subsequent LIDAR analysis conducted by Myrddyn Phillips.

LIDAR image of Cook's Study Hill (SE 131 041)

This was initiated by Joe Nuttall who produced a summit analysis programme that used LIDAR with an alternative height map (DEM) allowing identification of summits and cols and thereby drops.  The resulting spreadsheet that Joe produced contains over 29600 hills.

This spreadsheet is being evaluated by a number of people, including Ronnie Bowron, who passed the details of this hill for evaluation.

The criteria for the list that this summit relocation applies to are:

The Fours – The 400m Hills of England.  English hills at or above 400m and below 500m in height that have 30m minimum drop, accompanying the main listing of The Fours are three categories of sub hills, with this hill being listed in the 400m Sub-Four category, the criteria for which are all English hills at or above 400m and below 500m in height that have 20m or more and below 30m of drop.  The list is co-authored by Myrddyn Phillips and Aled Williams and the 2nd edition of the booklet containing this list was published by Mapping Mountains Publications on the 24th April 2018.

The Fours - The 400m Hills of England by Myrddyn Phillips and Aled Williams

The name the hill is listed by is Cook’s Study Hill, and it is adjoined to Bleaklow Head group of hills, which are situated in the Peak District of England (Region 36 The Southern Pennines), and it is positioned with the A6024 road to its north-west, the A628 road to its south and the B6106 road to its north-east, and has the town of Holmfirth towards the north north-east.

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

When the 2^nd edition of the The Fours – The 400m Hills of England was published by Mapping Mountains Publications in April 2018, this hill was listed with an estimated c 23m of drop, based on the 451m summit spot height positioned at SE 13219 04122 that appears on the Harvey 1:40,000 British Mountain Map to the Dark Peak and an estimated c 428m col height based on interpolation of 5m contouring between 425m – 430m that appear on the OS Maps website.

Extract from the Harvey 1:40,000 British Mountain Map to the Dark Peak

The details for this hill have now been re- assessed against the Ordnance Survey series of Six-Inch maps, and this mapping gives a 1486ft / 452.9m Bench Mark height positioned at SE 131 041.

Extract from the Ordnance Survey series of Six-Inch maps

However, it was not until LIDAR became available that the details for this hill could be accurately re-assessed.  The LIDAR (Light Detection & Ranging) technique produced highly accurate height data that is now freely available for much of England and Wales.

LIDAR summit image of Cook's Study Hill (SE 131 041)

LIDAR analysis gives the highest ground on this hill as 451.7m positioned at SE 13115 04132, as opposed to 450.1m positioned at SE 13221 04111, and this comes within the parameters of the Summit Relocations used within this page heading, these parameters are:

The term Summit Relocations applies when the hill’s high point is in a different field, or where a number of potential summit positions are within close proximity and the highest point is not where previously given, or when it is positioned to a different feature such as in a conifer plantation, or when the high point of the hill is placed within a different map contour, or when natural ground or the natural and intact summit of a hill is confirmed compared to a higher point such as a raised field boundary that is judged to be a relatively recent man-made construct, or a relocation of approximately 100 metres or more in distance from either the position of a map spot height or from where the summit of the hill was previously thought to exist.

 

Therefore, the summit height produced by LIDAR analysis is 451.7m and this is positioned at SE 13115 04132.  This position is not given a spot height on the contemporary Ordnance Survey 1:50,000 Landranger and 1:25,000 Explorer map and is approximately 105 metres westward from where the 451m spot height appears on the Harvey 1:40,000 British Mountain Map to the Dark Peak.

The full details for the hill are:

Group:  Bleaklow Head

Name:  Cook’s Study Hill

OS 1:50,000 map:  110

Summit Height:  451.7m (LIDAR)

Summit Grid Reference (New Position):  SE 13115 04132 (LIDAR)

Col Height:  428.0m (LIDAR)

Col Grid Reference:  SE 12959 04077 (LIDAR)

Drop:  23.7m (LIDAR)

Myrddyn Phillips and Aled Williams (September 2020)