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

Top y Mynydd (SJ 159 213) 

There has been a Significant Name Change to a hill that is listed in the 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 detail on contemporary maps produced from Ordnance Survey data. 

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

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 Foel Cedig group of hills, which are situated in the southern part of North Wales (Region A, Sub-Region A3), and it is positioned encircled by minor roads, with the B4396 road farther to its north, the B4580 road farther to its west, the A490 road farther to its south and the B4393 road farther to its south-east, and has the town of Llanfyllin towards the south-west.

The hill appeared in the original 300m height band of Welsh P30 hills published on Geoff Crowder’s v-g.me website, under the directional name of Llechwedd-ddu West Top, with an accompanying note stating; Name from hill to the East.

Llechwedd-ddu West Top

325m

SJ159213

125

239

Name from hill to the East

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 use a directional name based on supplanting the name of a near hill and adding a directional component 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

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 3 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 Top y Mynydd in the apportionments, with the details on the Tithe map appearing in the parish of Llanfechain and in the county named as Montgomery. 

Extract from the apportionments

Therefore, the name this hill is now listed by in the Y Trichant – The 300m Hills of Wales is Top y Mynydd and this was derived from the Tithe map. 

 

The full details for the hill are: 

Group:  Foel Cedig 

Name:  Top y Mynydd 

Previously Listed Name:  Llechwedd-ddu West Top 

OS 1:50,000 map:  125 

Summit Height:  325m (spot height)                                                           

Summit Grid Reference:  SJ 15984 21350 (hand-held GPS via DoBIH) 

Bwlch Height:  c 289m (interpolation) 

Bwlch Grid Reference:  SJ 16370 21339 (interpolation) 

Drop:  c 36m (spot height summit and interpolated bwlch) 

 

Myrddyn Phillips (July 2022)