Mapping Mountains – Significant Name Changes – Y Trichant - The 300m Hills of Wales

Racecourse (SO 091 862)

There has been a Significant Name Change to a hill that is listed in the Y Trichant – The 300m Hills of Wales, with the summit height, bwlch height and their locations, the drop and status of the hill derived from a Trimble GeoXH 6000 summit survey and subsequent LIDAR bwlch analysis conducted by Myrddyn Phillips.

The Trimble GeoXH 6000 gathering data at the summit of the Racecourse

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

Y Trichant – The 300m Hills of Wales – Welsh hills at or above 300m and below 400m in height that have 30m minimum drop, with an accompanying sub list entitled the Sub-Trichant, with the criteria for this sub category being all Welsh hills at or above 300m and below 400m in height with 20m or more and below 30m of drop.  The list is authored by Myrddyn Phillips with the Introduction to the list and the renaming of it appearing on Mapping Mountains on the 13^th May 2017, and the Introduction to the Mapping Mountains publication of the list appearing on the 1^st January 2022.

The hill is a part of the Cilfaesty range, this group of hills is situated in the north-eastern part of Mid and West Wales, and the hill is positioned above the A 483 road and between the town of Y Drenewydd (Newtown) to its north and the small community of Llanbadarn Fynydd to its south.  

The hill appeared in the 300m P30 list on Geoff Crowder’s v-g.me website under the transposed and invented name Glog Wood Top, with an accompanying note stating; Name from wood to the West.

Glog Wood Top

371m

SO092863

136

214

Name from wood to the West

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.  My preference was to use farm names and put Pen, Bryn or Moel in front of them or as in this instance, use the name of the wood which takes in the lower westerly slopes of this hill and add the word Top ti it.  This is not a practice that I now advocate as with research either conducted locally or historically an appropriate name for the hill can usually be found.   

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

The name this hill is now listed by is the Racecourse, and this was derived from local enquiry with the Morris family who live at Garth-Heilyn which is positioned under the hill to its north.  When I made enquiries Gwyn Morris told me that he didn’t know why the hill is known as the Racecourse and explained that Gilfach farm used to own the land, with his family moving to Garth-Heilyn in 1935 and purchasing the land from Gilfach in 1969, and the hill was known as the Racecourse even when Gilfach owned the land.

Gwyn Morris

I then spoke to Gwyn’s brother; Andrew Morris, and as soon as I mentioned the hill, he said ‘You mean the Racecourse.’  He proceeded to tell me that he didn’t know why it was called by this name, but that was the name the locals had known it by for decades.

Andrew Morris

I later checked the Tithe map, the term Tithe map is generally given to a map of a Welsh or English parish or township and which was prepared after the 1836 Tithe Commutation Act.  This act allowed tithes to be paid in cash rather than goods.  The Tithe maps gave names of owners and occupiers of land in each parish and importantly for place-name research they also included the name of enclosed land.  This enclosed land is usually based on a field system, however not every field is given a name, but many are and especially so in Wales.

Accessing information on the Tithe map is simplified by the use of a split screen enabling the summit to be pinpointed on the map on the right and for the same point to appear on the Tithe map on the left

The enclosed land where the summit of this hill is situated is given the number A. 236 on the Tithe map, this can be cross referenced against the apportionments; it is these apportionments that give the name of the owner or occupier of the land as well as the name of the land.  The land where the summit of this hill is situated is named as Race Course on the Tithe map and described as Pasture; it appears in the county named as Montgomery and in the parish of Ceri.

The land where the summit of this hill is situated is named as the Race Course on the Tithe map

Therefore, the name this hill is now listed by in the Y Trichant - The 300m Hills of Wales is the Racecourse, and this was derived from local enquiry, and later substantiated as the land where the summit of this hill is situated being confirmed by the use of the same name on the Tithe map.   

The full details for the hill are:

Group:  Cilfaesty

Name:  Racecourse

Previously Listed Name:  Glog Wood Top 

OS 1:50,000 map:  136

Summit Height:  370.7m (converted to OSGM15, Trimble GeoXH 6000)

Summit Grid Reference:  SO 09122 86296 (Trimble GeoXH 6000)  

Bwlch Height:  326.6m (LIDAR)

Bwlch Grid Reference:  SO 09105 89515 (LIDAR)

Drop:  44.1m (Trimble GeoXH 6000 summit and LIDAR bwlch)

For details on the survey of the Racecourse

Myrddyn Phillips (November 2016)