Mapping Mountains – Significant Name Changes – 200m Twmpau and Y Trechol – The Dominant Hills of Wales

Ash Wood (SO 480 122)

There has been a Significant Name Change to a hill that is listed in the 200m Twmpau and the Y Trechol – The Dominant Hills of Wales, with the summit height, bwlch height and their locations, the drop, dominance and status of the hill confirmed by LIDAR analysis conducted by Myrddyn Phillips.

LIDAR image of Ash Wood (SO 480 122)

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

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

Y Trechol – The Dominant Hills of Wales – Welsh P30 hills whose prominence equal or exceed half that of their absolute height.  With the criteria for Lesser Dominant status being those additional Welsh P30 hills whose prominence is between one third and half that of their absolute height.  The list is authored by Myrddyn Phillips with the Introduction to the start of the Mapping Mountains publication of this list appearing on the 3rd December 2015, and which is now available in its entirety on Mapping Mountains in Google Doc format.

The hill is adjoined to the Mynyddoedd Duon group of hills which are situated in the eastern part of South Wales (Region C, Sub-Region C3), and it is positioned with the B4233 road to its north-east and the A40 road to its south, and has the town of Trefynwy (Monmouth) towards the east.

When the original 200m height band of Welsh P30 hills were published on Geoff Crowder’s v-g.me website this hill was listed under the name of Long Hill, with an accompanying note stating; Name from wood at summit.

Long Hill

205c

SO480122

161

14

Clem/Yeaman. Name from wood at summit.

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 transpose the name of a wood and exclude the word Wood from it.  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.

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

As the summit of this hill comprises bounded land the details for it were examined on 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.

Extract from the Tithe map

The enclosed land where the summit of this hill is situated is given the number 409 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 Ash Wood in the apportionments, with the details on the Tithe map appearing in the parish of Monmouth and in the county named as Monmouth.

Extract from the apportionments

The boundary between the land known as Long Hill Wood and Ash Wood follows either a fence or wall that is positioned just north of a forest track.  The boundary is marked as a black line on older maps and this line is now broken on contemporary maps such as the Ordnance Survey map on the OS Maps website, this may signify that this part of the boundary is no longer apparent on the ground.  The LIDAR summit position is just north of this boundary line signifying the summit is on land known as Ash Wood and not Long Hill Wood, with the caveat that one may surmise (as I did when I originally named this hill for listing purposes) that the name Long Hill Wood is taken from the name of the hill; Long Hill.  However, I can find no documental evidence that this is so and it seems the name Long Hill Wood is just applicable to the bounded land its name is given to and has not been taken from the hill itself.

Extract from the OS Maps website

Therefore, the name this hill is now listed by in the 200m Twmpau and Y Trechol – The Dominant Hills of Wales is Ash Wood, and this name was derived from the Tithe map.

The full details for the hill are:

Group:  Mynyddoedd Duon

Name:  Ash Wood

Previously Listed Name:  Long Hill 

  

OS 1:50,000 map:  161

Summit Height:  206.4m (LIDAR)

Summit Grid Reference:  SO 48011 12229 (LIDAR)

Bwlch Height:  97.6m (LIDAR)

Bwlch Grid Reference:  SO 46851 13845 (LIDAR)

Drop:  108.8m (LIDAR)

Dominance:  52.69% (LIDAR)

Myrddyn Phillips (January 2020)