Mapping Mountains – Significant Name Changes – Y Pedwarau – The 400m Hills of Wales and Y Trichant – The 300m Hills of Wales

 

Ffridd Ddu (SH 769 075) 

There has been a Significant Name Change to a hill that is listed in the Y Pedwarau – The 400m Hills of Wales and Y Trichant – The 300m Hills of Wales, with the summit height, bwlch height and their locations, the drop and status of the hill derived from LIDAR analysis initially conducted by Aled Williams and subsequently by Myrddyn Phillips. 

LIDAR image of Ffridd Ddu (SH 769 075)

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

Y Pedwarau – The 400m Hills of Wales.  Welsh hills at or above 400m and below 500m in height that have 30m minimum drop, accompanying the main Y Pedwarau list are five categories of sub hills, with this hill being listed in the 390m Sub-Pedwar category.  The criteria for 390m Sub-Pedwar status being all Welsh hills at or above 390m and below 400m in height that have 30m minimum drop.  The list is co-authored by Myrddyn Phillips and Aled Williams and is published on Mapping Mountains in Google Doc format.

Y Pedwarau - The 400m Hills of Wales by Myrddyn Phillips and Aled Williams

Y Trichant – The 300m Hills of Wales – Welsh hills at or above 300m and below 400m in height that have 30m minimum drop, with an accompanying sub list entitled the Sub-Trichant, with the criteria for this sub category being all Welsh hills at or above 300m and below 400m in height with 20m or more and below 30m of drop.  The list is authored by Myrddyn Phillips with the Introduction to the list and the renaming of it appearing on Mapping Mountains on the 13^th May 2017, and the Introduction to the Mapping Mountains publication of the list appearing on the 1^st January 2022. 

Y Trichant - The 300m Hills of Wales by Myrddyn Phillips

The hill is adjoined to the Aran Fawddwy group of hills, which are situated in the south-western part of North Wales (Region A, Sub-Region A3), and it is positioned with a minor road to its north-west, the A487 road to its west and the A489 road to its south-east, and has the village of Corris towards the west. 

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

The hill appeared in the original Welsh 300m P30 list published on Geoff Crowder’s v-g.me website, under the name of Mynydd Tŷ-mawr, which is a prominent name that appears beside the summit of this hill on the contemporary Ordnance Survey 1:50,000 Landranger and 1:25,000 Explorer map.  This is also the name the hill was listed by in the 1^st edition of the Y Pedwarau published by Europeaklist in May 2013.

Mynydd Ty-mawr

390m

SH770076

124

23/215

aka Mynydd Fron-felen

 

During my early hill listing I paid little regard to name placement on the map, or the meaning of names and to what feature the name was appropriately applied to.  Therefore, I prioritised names for listing purposes that I now understand are either inappropriate or where another name is viewed as being more appropriate. 

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. 

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 228 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 Ffridd Ddu in the apportionments, with the details on the Tithe map appearing in the parish of Llanwrin and in the county named as Montgomery.  With the enclosed land to the north of the boundary fence named on the Tithe map as the sheepwalk (land referred to as Mynydd) of the farm of Tŷ-mawr. 

Extract from the apportionments

Therefore, the name this hill is now listed by in the Y Pedwarau – The 400m Hills of Wales and Y Trichant – The 300m Hills of Wales is Ffridd Ddu, and this was derived from the Tithe map. 

 

The full details for the hill are: 

Group:  Aran Fawddwy 

Name:  Ffridd Ddu 

Previously Listed Name:  Mynydd Tŷ-mawr 

OS 1:50,000 map:  124 

Summit Height:  390.9m (LIDAR) 

Summit Grid Reference:  SH 76983 07552 (LIDAR) 

Bwlch Height:  335.9m (LIDAR) 

Bwlch Grid Reference:  SH 77180 07763 (LIDAR) 

Drop:  55.0m (LIDAR summit and bwlch) 

 

Myrddyn Phillips and Aled Williams (February 2022)