Mapping Mountains – Summit Relocations – The Fours – The 400m Hills of England

Way Stone Edge (SD 999 140) 

There has been a Summit Relocation to a hill that is listed in the The Fours – The 400m Hills of England, with the summit height, col height and their locations, the drop and status of the hill derived from LIDAR analysis conducted by Myrddyn Phillips. 

LIDAR image of Way Stone Edge (SD 999 140)

The criteria for the list that this summit relocation applies to are:

The Fours – The 400m Hills of England.  English hills at or above 400m and below 500m in height that have 30m minimum drop, accompanying the main list are three categories of sub hills; the 400m Sub-Four category, the 390m Sub-Four category and the 390m Double Sub-Four category.  The list is co-authored by Myrddyn Phillips and Aled Williams and the 2^nd edition of the booklet containing this list was published by Mapping Mountains Publications on the 24^th April 2018.

The Fours - The 400m Hills of England by Myrddyn Phillips and Aled Williams

The name the hill is listed by is Way Stone Edge, and it is the highest hill in its own group of hills, which are situated in the southern Pennines, and it is positioned with the M62 motorway and the A672 road to its north-west, and the A640 road to its south-east, and has the village of Denshaw towards the south south-west.

When the original list that later became known as The Fours – The 400m Hills of England was first compiled, the summit position of this hill was given as SE 001 140 based on the 482m spot height that appears on the contemporary Ordnance Survey 1:25,000 Explorer map. 

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

When the 1^st edition of the The Fours was published by Europeaklist in December 2013, the summit of this hill was relocated to SD 997 140 and listed with an estimated c 94 of drop, based on an estimated c 482m summit height and a 388m col height, with the former estimated from interpolation of the uppermost 480m ring contour and the latter based on the spot height that appears on the Ordnance Survey 1:25,000 Explorer map.

This was also the summit height and position given for this hill when the 2^nd edition of the The Fours – The 400m Hills of England was published by Mapping Mountains Publications in April 2018.

However, it was not until LIDAR became available that the details for this hill could be accurately re-assessed.  The LIDAR (Light Detection & Ranging) technique produced highly accurate height data that is now freely available for much of England and Wales. 

LIDAR summit image of Way Stone Edge (SD 999 140)

LIDAR analysis gives the highest ground on this hill as 481.6m positioned at SD 99956 14046, and this comes within the parameters of the Summit Relocations used within this page heading, these parameters are:

The term Summit Relocations applies to when the high point is positioned in a different field, to a different feature such as a conifer plantation, within a different map contour, a different point where a number of potential summit positions are within close proximity, when natural ground or the natural and intact summit is confirmed compared to a higher point such as a raised field boundary or covered reservoir that is considered a relatively recent man-made construct, or a relocation of approximately 100 metres or more in distance from either the position of a map spot height or from where the summit of the hill was previously thought to exist.

Therefore, the summit height produced by LIDAR analysis is 481.6m and this is positioned at SD 99956 14046.  This position is not given a spot height on the contemporary Ordnance Survey 1:50,000 Landranger and 1:25,000 Explorer map and is approximately 145 metres westward from where the 482m spot height appears on the Ordnance Survey 1:25,000 Explorer map and approximately 160 metres eastward from where the summit position was previously given which was ascertained from hand-held GPS co-ordinates submitted to DoBIH.

 

The full details for the hill are:

Group:  Way Stone Edge

Name:  Way Stone Edge

OS 1:50,000 map:  109

Summit Height:  481.6m (LIDAR)

Summit Grid Reference (New Position):  SD 99956 14046 (LIDAR)

Col Height:  387.8m (LIDAR)

Col Grid Reference:  SE 01975 09573 (LIDAR)

Drop:  93.9m (LIDAR)

 

Myrddyn Phillips and Aled Williams (July 2023)