Mapping Mountains – Significant Name Changes – 200m Twmpau

 

Parkhouse Rocks (SO 499 034) 

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 derived by Joe Nuttall who produced a summit analysis programme using LIDAR, and then by LIDAR analysis initially conducted by Jim Bloomer and subsequently by Myrddyn Phillips. 

LIDAR image of Parkhouse Rocks (SO 499 034)

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 200m Twmpau by Myrddyn Phillips

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 encircled by minor roads with the B4293 road further to its north-west and the A466 road further to its east, and has the small community of Llanishen towards the west and the village of Llandogo towards the east north-east. 

The qualifying hill appeared in the original Welsh 200m P30 list on Geoff Crowder’s v-g.me website under the transposed and invented name of Ninewells Wood Top, with an accompanying note stating; Name from wood to the North, and listed with a 274m summit height, based on the spot height that appears at SO 509 033 on the Ordnance Survey 1:25,000 Explorer map.  LIDAR analysis has subsequently moved its summit position and hence its name change.

Ninewells Wood Top

274m

SO509034

162

14

Name from wood to the North

 

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 near 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

Since publication of these P30 lists on Geoff Crowder’s v-g.me website 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 old Vector Map Local hosted on the Geograph website and which was entitled the Interactive Coverage Map.  One of the historic maps now available is the Ordnance Survey One-Inch ‘Old Series’ map and it is this map that formed the basis for the change in this hill’s listed name. 

Extract from the Ordnance Survey One-Inch 'Old Series' map

The One-Inch ‘Old Series’ map was the first map that Ordnance Survey produced, and their publication culminated from the whole of Britain being surveyed between 1791 and 1874 and the detail gathered therein produced at a scale of one inch to the mile and published in sheet format between 1805 and 1874.  The One-Inch ‘Old Series’ maps for the whole of Wales are now available online; they are also available in map format as enlarged and re-projected versions to match the scale and dimensions of the Ordnance Survey 1:50,000 Landranger series and are published by Cassini.  This series of maps form another important part in the study of Welsh upland place-names and bridge the timeframe leading up to the production of the Ordnance Survey base map of the Six-Inch series, and importantly for this hill and its listed name, it is the One-Inch ‘Old Series’ map and the series of Six-Inch maps that names the area taking in the summit of this hill as Parkhouse Rocks. 

Extract from the Ordnance Surveys series of Six-Inch maps

Therefore, the name this hill is now listed by in the 200m Twmpau is Parkhouse Rocks, and this was derived from the Ordnance Survey One-Inch ‘Old Series’ map and the Ordnance Survey series of Six-Inch maps. 

 

The full details for the hill are:

Group:  Gwent Is Coed

Name:  Parkhouse Rocks

Previously Listed Name:  Ninewells Wood Top   

OS 1:50,000 map:  162

Summit Height:  276.1m (LIDAR) 

Summit Grid Reference:  SO 49959 03439 (LIDAR) 

Bwlch Height:  235.2m (LIDAR) 

Bwlch Grid Reference:  SO 50941 04537 (LIDAR) 

Drop:  40.9m (LIDAR)

 

Myrddyn Phillips (March 2021)