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

Copperthwaite Moor (SE 053 999) 

There has been a Significant Name Change 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 Copperthwaite Moor (SE 053 999)

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 is a sub list entitled the Sub-Fours, the criteria for which are all English hills at or above 400m and below 500m in height that have 15m or more and below 30m of drop.  The list is co-authored by Myrddyn Phillips and Aled Williams and is available to download in Google Doc format from the Mapping Mountains site.

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

The hill is adjoined to the Great Shunner Fell group of hills, which are situated in the English Pennines, and it is positioned with minor roads to its north-east, west and south-east, and the B6270 road farther to its south, and has the village of Reeth towards the west south-west.

When the Introduction to the first group of hills for the updated and revised listing of the The Fours – The 400m Hills of England was published by Mapping Mountains on the 10^th September 2022, it was announced that the accompanying sub lists were being revised with the two 390m categories dispensed with and the criteria and name of the 400m Sub-Fours revised.  The one accompanying sub list is now named the Sub-Fours with its criteria being all English hills 400m and above and below 500m in height that have 15m and more and below 30m of drop.

Prior to this revision this hill was listed as Fremington Edge with 17m of drop, based on the twin 435m summit spot heights positioned at SE 05216 99905 that appears on the Ordnance Survey 1:25,000 Explorer map and positioned at NZ 05189 00016 that appeared on the Ordnance Survey Vector Map Local hosted on the Geograph website and which was entitled the Interactive Coverage Map, and the 418m col spot height that appears on the Ordnance Survey 1:25,000 Explorer map. 

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

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 analysis gives the highest ground on this hill as 435.5m positioned at NZ 05203 00071.  The hill was therefore listed under the name of Fremington Edge with these details given for the summit position and height when the revised list including P15 subs was subsequently published.

After these details became publicly available Ronnie Bowron sent communication that the listed summit was to a spoil heap with the track of a recent walk over these high points and a photo of the spoil heap attached and that the locally known name for the hill is Copperthwaite Moor.  Ronnie explained that he knows this area very well, and as a teenager used to go to scout camp directly below the edge; the edge being Fremington Edge which is a prominent feature of this hill.

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 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 mapping resources now available online is the WalkLakes website which hosts an interactive map originated from the Ordnance Survey Open Data programme.  And although the contemporary Ordnance Survey 1:50,000 Landranger and 1:25,000 Explorer map do not record the specific name of Copperthwaite Moor, the WalkLakes map does. 

Extract from the interactive mapping hosted on the WalkLakes website

Therefore, the name this hill is now listed by in The Fours - The 400m Hills of England is Copperthwaite Moor and this was derived from Ronnie Bowron, with the name also recorded on the WalkLakes interactive map. 

 

The full details for the hill are:

Group:  Great Shunner Fell

Name:  Copperthwaite Moor

Previously Listed Name:  Fremington Edge 

OS 1:50,000 map:  98

Summit Height:  435.3m (LIDAR)

Summit Grid Reference:  SE 05322 99936 (LIDAR)

Col Height:  419.3m (LIDAR)

Col Grid Reference:  NZ 04714 00426 (LIDAR)

Drop:  16.0m (LIDAR)

 

Thanks to Ronnie Bowron for details relating to the listed name of this hill

Myrddyn Phillips and Aled Williams (October 2025)