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

Weston Bank (SO 199 702)

There has been a Significant Name Change to a hill that is listed in the Y Pedwarau, with the height and drop of the hill being confirmed by a survey with the Trimble GeoXH 6000 which was conducted on the 8^th April 2016.

The criteria for the list that this name change applies to are:

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

The hill is a part of the Fforest Glud range, this group of hills is situated in the eastern part of Mid and West Wales and are known as the Radnor Forest in English, and the hill is positioned between the small communities of Llangunllo to the north-east and Bleddfa to the south south-east.

The Trimble GeoXH 6000 gathering data at the summit of Weston Bank

The hill appeared in the 400m P30 list on Geoff Crowder’s v-g.me website under the name of Pen-y-clawdd Hill, which is a name that appeared close to the summit of the hill on Ordnance Survey 1:25,000 Explorer maps of the day. 

Pen-y-clawdd Hill

416m

SO199703

136/148

200/214

  

During my early hill listing I paid little regard to name placement on a map, or the meaning of names and to what feature the name was appropriately applied to.  Therefore I prioritised names for listing purposes that I now understand are inappropriate, and Pen-y-clawdd Hill is such an example as this name has been consistently applied on Ordnance Survey maps that endeavour to use appropriate name placement to a c 401m high hill that stretches from SO 193 705 to land taking in a c 400m rise at SO 190 702.  The land of Pen-y-clawdd Hill is considered separate from that of the land associated with the hill that this blog post relates to.

Appropriate name placement for Pen-y-clawdd Hill on the Ordnance Survey 1:25,000 historical map

Since publication of these P30 lists on Geoff Crowder’s v-g.me website there have been a number of Ordnance Survey maps made available online, some of these are historical such as the series of Six-Inch maps on the National Library of Scotland website, whilst others are current and digitally updated such as the enlarged map hosted on the Geograph website.  Two of the historical maps now available are the Ordnance Survey Draft Surveyors map which formed the basis for the Ordnance Survey One-Inch ‘Old Series’ map, and it was the former of these maps that name the hill as Weston Bank.

Extract from the Ordnance Surveys Draft Surveyors map

The Draft Surveyors maps consist of the preliminary drawings made by the Ordnance Survey’s surveyors between the 1780s and 1840 and formed the basis for the first publicly available One-Inch map.  They were drawn at scales of six inches to the mile for areas considered of particular military significance and down to two inches to the mile for other areas.  Fair copies were then produced from these preliminary drawings to one inch to the mile and then copper plates were prepared for printing.  The Draft Surveyors maps for the whole of Wales are now available online and they form an important part in the study of Welsh upland place-names as they bridge the time frame between the late 18^th century and the mid-19^th century when the Ordnance Survey produced their first One-Inch maps. 

Therefore, the name this hill is now listed by in Y Pedwarau is Weston Bank and this was derived from the Ordnance Survey Draft Surveyors map.

The full details for the hill are:

Group:  Fforest Glud

Name:  Weston Bank

Previously Listed Name:  Pen-y-clawdd Hill 

Summit Height:  416.9m (converted to OSGM15)

OS 1:50,000 map:  137, 148

Summit Grid Reference:  SO 19915 70279

 

Drop:  38.6m (converted to OSGM15)

For details on the survey of Weston Bank

Myrddyn Phillips and Aled Williams (November 2016)