Mapping Mountains – Significant Name Changes – The Fours – The 400m Hills of England

 

The Beet (SK 122 819) 

There has been a Significant Name Change that is retrospective 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 The Beet (SK 122 819)

The criteria for the list that this name change 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, these are the 400m Sub-Fours, the 390m Sub-Fours and the 390m Double Sub-Fours.  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 hill is adjoined to the Kinder Scout group of hills, which are situated in the Peak District, and it is positioned with a minor road to its north-west, the A623 road to its south-west and the B6049 road to its east, and has the town of Chapel-en-le-Frith towards the west.

When the listing that is now known as The Fours – The 400m Hills of England was originally compiled this hill appeared under the transposed and invented name of Slitherstone Hill, with an accompanying note stating; Authors name from mine to the south. 

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

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.  And for this hill its listed name was transposed from a disused quarry with the word Hill added to it.  This is not a practice that is now advocated 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.

Since the original publication of this list there have been a number of maps made available online.  Some of these are historic such as the series of Six-Inch maps on the National Library of Scotland website.  Whilst others were digitally updated such as the Ordnance Survey Vector Map Local that was hosted on the Geograph website and which was entitled the Interactive Coverage Map, whilst others are current and digitally updated such as the interactive mapping on the Magic Maps and WalkLakes websites.  One of the historic maps now available online is the Ordnance Survey One-Inch ‘Old Series’ map, and it is this map that formed the basis for the change in the listed name of this hill.

The One-Inch ‘Old Series’ map was the first map that Ordnance Survey produced, and their publication culminated from the whole of Britain being surveyed between 1791 and 1874 and the detail gathered therein produced at a scale of one inch to the mile and published in sheet format between 1805 and 1874.  The One-Inch ‘Old Series’ maps for the whole of Wales are now available online; they are also available in map format as enlarged and re-projected versions to match the scale and dimensions of the Ordnance Survey 1:50,000 Landranger series and are published by Cassini.  This series of maps form another important part in the study of upland place-names and bridge the timeframe leading up to the production of the Ordnance Survey base map of the Six-Inch series, and importantly for this hill and its listed name, it is this map that places the name of The Beet across the summit area of this hill. 

Extract from the Ordnance Survey One-Inch 'Old Series' map

Consequently, this hill appeared under this name when the 1^st edition of The Fours was published by Europeaklist in December 2013 and the 2^nd edition of The Fours – The 400m Hills of England was published by Mapping Mountains Publications in April 2018.

Therefore, the name this hill is now listed by in The Fours - The 400m Hills of England is The Beet and this was derived from the Ordnance Survey One-Inch ‘Old Series’ map. 

 

The full details for the hill are:

Group:  Kinder Scout

Name:  The Beet

Previously Listed Name:  Slitherstone Hill 

OS 1:50,000 map:  110

Summit Height:  477.5m (LIDAR)

Summit Grid Reference:  SK 12243 81956 (LIDAR)

Col Height:  409.5m (LIDAR)

Col Grid Reference:  SK 12591 83100 (LIDAR)

Drop:  68.0m (LIDAR)

 

Myrddyn Phillips and Aled Williams (September 2023)