Thursday 30 June 2016

Mapping Mountains – Significant Name Changes – Y Pedwarau - The 400m Hills of Wales


Foel Fawr (SN 900 904)

There has been a Significant Name Change to a hill that is listed in the Y Pedwarauwith the following details relating to a hill that was surveyed with the Trimble GeoXH 6000 on the 18th April 2014.

The criteria for the list that this name change affects are:

Y Pedwarau These are the Welsh hills at and above 400m and below 500m in height that have 30m minimum drop,  with the introduction to the publication of this list on Mapping Mountains appearing on the 30th January 2017.  The list is co-authored by Myrddyn Phillips and Aled Williams.

The hill is part of the Pumlumon range, which is an extensive group of hills situated in the north-western part of mid and west Wales, and is positioned between the small communities of Penffordd-las (Staylittle) to the north-west and Llawr-y-glyn to the east north-east, with the reservoir of Llyn Clywedog to the hill’s south.

The Trimble GeoXH 6000 gathering data at the summit of Foel Fawr

The hill appeared in the 400m P30 list on Geoff Crowder’s v-g.me website under the name Bryn yr Hwrdd, this name appears on the Ordnance Survey 1:25,000 Explorer map over 1 km north-westward from this hill’s summit and is consistently placed on Ordnance Survey maps applicable to land centred at SN 899 911.    

During my early hill listing I used the map name that appeared closest to the summit of the listed hill or which seemed most appropriate for the hill, without due consideration for its positional value, doing so can perpetuate the use of inappropriate names.  This is not a practice that I now advocate as with research either conducted locally or historically a more appropriate name for the hill can usually be found.


Bryn yr Hwrdd
    421m
    SN900904
    136
  214/215


The name this hill is now listed by in the Y Pedwarau is Foel Fawr, and this was derived from the Ordnance Survey enlarged mapping that is hosted on the Geograph website.  This mapping became publicly available after the original P30 lists were published on Geoff Crowder's v-g.me website.

Extract from the Ordnance Survey enlarged map on the Geograph website
Since the publication of these P30 lists there have been a number of historical Ordnance Survey maps made available online, including the series of Six-Inch maps on the National Library of Scotland website, much of the place-name information on these maps were the source for what now appears on the Ordnance Survey enlarged mapping hosted on the Geograph website.

Extract from the Ordnance Survey Six-Inch map published in 1885

The full details for the hill are:

Group:  Pumlumon

Name:  Foel Fawr

Previously Listed Name:  Bryn yr Hwrdd 

Summit Height:  422.9m (converted to OSGM15)

OS 1:50,000 map:  136

Summit Grid Reference:  SN 90029 90416 
 
Drop:  44.1m (converted to OSGM15)




Myrddyn Phillips and Aled Williams (June 2016)




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