26.08.21 Hargrave Bank (SJ 312 095)
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| Hargrave Bank (SJ 312 095) |
Until recently this hill remained unclassified
and then Joe Nuttall produced his summit analysis programme and the hill
classification world was turned upside down.
One end product of the phenomenal work that Joe has done is the recently
acquired status of Hargrave Bank as a Tump.
When I saw the grid reference for this hill on
the Hill Bagging website, I knew it was positioned close to where I live, and
when I checked it against an Ordnance Survey map I smiled, as it is literally
over the brow of the northerly part of Cefn Digoll (Long Mountain) just a few
miles from Welshpool. I’ve waited ever
since to visit.
The impetus to visit materialised when Mark
Trengove suggested meeting up to visit Roundton Hill (SO 294 949) and I
wondered if we could tag Hargrave Bank on as a small preliminary walk.
Mark arrived at my home at 10.30am and we sat in
the back garden with a morning coffee chatting about a variety of subjects,
some related to hills, many others went off in all sorts of tangents, which can
be the norm when I get enthused with conversation.
We took two cars for each walk and found parking
for the ascent of Hargrave Bank to the north-west of its summit, adjacent to a
sharp bend in the paved lane that passes the hill and works its way down to the
flat lands below.
I had booked a table for two for a meal at The
Raven at 6.15pm, but we were in no particular rush and with the morning clag
now burnt off and the cloud broken, and the strength of early afternoon sun
warming proceedings, it seemed our first walk of the day was perfectly timed.
From our starting point an old green lane makes
its way toward the west of the hill; this connects one part of the paved lane
with another, passing one or two tucked away houses on the way. The old green lane is muddied in places and
narrows in its upper part. We followed
it southward with its muddied depths at contrast to the warming sunshine on the
fields either side.
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| The old lane leading to the hill |
Leaving the quiet surrounds of the green lane we
headed over a gate leading eastward on a track slowly gaining height around the
upper northerly part of Hargrave Bank.
The view now opened up, in front the flatlands of the Shropshire Plain and
the rising profile of The Wrekin, whilst to our left the Breiddin rising above the
small community of Middletown. With the
latter an unusual perspective for me, with the profile of the Breiddin back to
front compared to the view of these hills I am used to.
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| The track leading toward the upper field |
We left the track to gain the upper field
through a gate and proceeded to follow a vehicle track through planted
barley. This shone golden and meandered
in the early afternoon comforting breeze that gently blew across the hill.
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| Heading toward the summit |
Hargrave Bank has a triangulation pillar at its
summit, with its highest point just a few metres from its base. We assessed the lay of land and discussed where
the high point lay and once decided upon, the Trimble was soon set up gathering
data. During data collection I sat
beside Mark at the trig pillar looking out across to the Stiperstones and the
sun kissed county of Shropshire.
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| Gathering data at the summit of Hargrave Bank |
Once the Trimble had done its stuff and gathered
and stored summit data, I closed it down, packed it away and we reversed our
inward route back down to the muddied old green lane and continued following
this up to its high point, which also constitutes the col of this hill.
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| The Trimble set-up position at the summit of Hargrave Bank |
Again, the Trimble was soon set up gathering its
all-important data. During data
collection we each stood a distance away from the equipment on opposing sides
from it, as this part of the lane was used for access to a near house and led
off the continuation of the paved lane we had driven on an hour or so
earlier. Thankfully no vehicles appeared
and the Trimble soon gathered col data and was safely packed away.
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| Gathering data at the col of Hargrave Bank |
All that remained was to reverse our inward
route down the green lane back to my car.
We got delayed on the way due to a buddleia bush which was festooned in
butterflies, they darted this way and that, a myriad of colours, all beautiful
as sunshine glinted off their delicate wings.
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| A Comma enjoying a buddleia |
We stopped watching the butterflies for quite
some time and were soon joined by the woman whose garden the buddleia plant was
a part of. She had moved here with her
husband three years ago from Sussex and seemed to be revelling in the
experience. Leaving the butterflies it
was only a short distance back to the two cars and away we went, heading toward
Churchstoke for our second walk of the day; the excellent Roundton Hill.
Survey Result:
Hargrave Bank
Summit Height: 324.5m (converted to OSGM15)
Summit Grid Reference: SJ 31297 09513
Col Height: 294.3m (converted to OSGM15)
Col Grid Reference: SJ 31054 09130
Drop: 30.2m
Dominance: 9.31%
For further details please consult the Trimble Survey Spreadsheet
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