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

 

Lower Field (SJ 137 155) 

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 a Trimble GeoXH 6000 survey conducted by Myrddyn Phillips with assistance from Mark Trengove. 

LIDAR image of Lower Field (SJ 137 155)

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 A490 road farther to its north-east, the B4393 road farther to its north-west, the B4382 road farther to its west and the A495 road farther to its south-east, and has the village of Meifod towards the south-east.

The hill appeared in the original 300m height bandof Welsh P30 hills published on Geoff Crowder’s v-g.me website, under the transposed name of Maes-y-castell, which is a prominent name that appears to the south-east of the summit of this hill on the contemporary Ordnance Survey 1:25,000 Explorer map and which the Ordnance Survey Six-Inch map indicates is the name of a farm.

Maes-y-castell

320c

SJ137155

125

239

Two points of same height (Gallt y Goedhwch SJ137159).

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 a prominent name that appears on contemporary Ordnance Survey maps and presume it that of the hill.  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 302 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 Lower Field in the apportionments, with the details on the Tithe map appearing in the parish of Meifod 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 Lower Field and this was derived from the Tithe map. 

 

The full details for the hill are: 

Group:  Foel Cedig 

Name:  Lower Field 

Previously Listed Name:  Maes-y-castell 

OS 1:50,000 map:  125

Summit Height:  321.1m (converted to OSGM15)                                                           

Summit Grid Reference:  SJ 13704 15586                                     

Bwlch Height:  295.3m (converted to OSGM15) 

Bwlch Grid Reference:  SJ 13681 15650 

Drop:  25.8m 

 

Myrddyn Phillips (September 2022)