Mapping Mountains – Significant Name Changes – The Welsh P15s

 

Betws (SH 392 937) 

There has been a Significant Name Change to a hill that is listed in The Welsh P15s, with the summit height, bwlch height and their locations, the drop and status of the hill derived from detail on contemporary maps produced from Ordnance Survey data. 

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

The Welsh P15s – Welsh hills with 15m minimum drop, irrespective of their height, with an accompanying sub list entitled the Welsh Sub-P15s, with the criteria for this sub category being all Welsh hills with 14m or more and below 15m of drop.  The list is authored by Myrddyn Phillips, with the Introduction to the list appearing on Mapping Mountains on the 10^th May 2019. 

The Welsh P15s by Myrddyn Phillips

The hill is adjoined to the Ynys Môn group of hills, which are situated in the north-western part of North Wales (Region A, Sub-Region A1), and it is positioned with the coast to its north, the A5025 road to its south, and has the village of Cemaes towards the west. 

When the listing that became known as The Welsh P15s was being compiled, this hill was listed under the point (Pt. c 71m) notation with an estimated c 17m of drop, based on an estimated c 71m summit height, based on interpolation of 5m contouring that appear on the Ordnance Survey 1:25,000 Explorer map and the 54m bwlch spot height that appeared on the Ordnance Survey Vector Map Local hosted on the Geograph website and which was entitled the Interactive Coverage Map. 

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

The details for this hill have subsequently been re-assessed against the mapping on the WalkLakes website which hosts an interactive map originated from the Ordnance Survey Open Data programme.  This map has many spot heights not on other publicly available Ordnance Survey maps and for this hill a 72m spot height is given on the area of its summit.  During this re-assessment the listed bwlch height was also amended favouring the 53m spot height that appears on the Ordnance Survey 1:25,000 Explorer map. 

Extract from the WalkLakes website

As the summit of this hill comprises bounded land the details for it were examined on the Tithe map.  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 Betws in the apportionments, with the details on the Tithe map appearing in the parish of Llanbadrig and in the county named as Anglesey. 

Extract from the apportionments

Therefore, the name this hill is now listed by in The Welsh P15s is Betws and this was derived from the Tithe map. 

 

The full details for the hill are: 

Group:  Ynys Môn 

Name:  Betws

Previously Listed Name:  Pt. c 71m 

OS 1:50,000 map:  114

Summit Height:  72m (spot height)                                                           

Summit Grid Reference:  SH 39299 93790 (spot height) 

Bwlch Height:  53m (spot height) 

Bwlch Grid Reference:  SH 39758 93691 (spot height) 

Drop:  19m (spot height summit and bwlch) 

 

Myrddyn Phillips (July 2021)