Mapping Mountains – Significant Name Changes – 200m Twmpau

Foel Tyddyn y Berllan (SH 634 051)

There has been a Significant Name Change to a hill that is listed in the 200m Twmpau, with the summit height, drop and status of the hill being confirmed by a Trimble GeoXH 6000 survey which took place on the 14^th May 2018.

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

200m Twmpau – Welsh hills at or above 200m and below 300m in height that have 30m minimum drop, with an accompanying sub category entitled the 200m Sub-Twmpau consisting of all Welsh hills at or above 200m and below 300m in height that have 20m or more and below 30m of drop.  With the word Twmpau being an acronym standing for thirty welsh metre prominences and upward. 

The hill is adjoined to the Tarennydd range of hills which are situated in the south-western part of North Wales (Region A, Sub-Region A3), and it overlooks the Dyffryn Dysynni to its north-west, and has the small community of Abertrinant towards its east and Bryn-crug towards its south-west. 

Foel Tyddyn y Berllan (SH 634 051)

The hill appeared in the 200m P30 list on Geoff Crowder’s v-g.me website under the invented name of Bryn Tyddyn-y-berllan  with an accompanying note stating; Name from buildings to the North-East. 

Bryn Tyddyn-y-berllan

233m

SH634052

124

23

Name from buildings to the North-East

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.  This is not a practice that I now advocate 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.

When visiting this hill and adjoining hills I met a number of local farmers, including Stephen Jones who farms from Llanerch-goediog (SH 640 050), which is situated directly below the hill towards the east.  Stephen is aged 55 and a Welsh speaker and except for three years when in university he has lived at this farm all of his life.  We spent a number of minutes talking about the hills and their names, and two other names that Stephen also gave me will be documented in separate Significant Name Changes posts.  Stephen told me that this hill is a part of his land and that he knows it as Foel Tyddyn y Berllan.

Stephen Jones

I later met Joanne Redman on the summit of one of the hills that Stephen had given me a name for and she recommended that I speak with her father; Tomos Lewis, who Stephen also recommended me to contact.  I phoned Tomos and three days later visited him, when I pulled up he and Joanne were gathering sheep from a road-side pen and driving them up toward a field.

Tomos farms from Nant-y-mynach (SH 644 048) and is aged 60 and a Welsh speaker, he has lived at this farm since the age of six, having moved there from the council houses in Abertrinant.  During our conversations Tomos proved very knowledgeable and gave me many hill names that do not appear on any Ordnance Survey map, and one of them was the name of this hill; Foel Tyddyn y Berllan, which matches that given me by Stephen Jones.   

Tomos Lewis

Therefore, the name this hill is now listed by in the 200m Twmpau is Foel Tyddyn y Berllan and this name was derived from local enquiry.

The full details for the hill are:

Group:  Tarennydd

Name:  Foel Tyddyn y Berllan

 

Previously Listed Name:  Bryn Tyddyn-y-berllan

 

Summit Height:  232.8m (converted to OSGM15)

OS 1:50,000 map:  124

Summit Grid Reference:  SH 63481 05158 

 

Drop:  32.5m (converted to OSGM15)

The Trimble GeoXH 6000 gathering data at the summit of Foel Tyddyn y Berllan

For details on the survey of Foel Tyddyn y Berllan

Myrddyn Phillips (July 2018)