Mapping Mountains – Hill Reclassifications – The 500-Metre Tops of England and Wales – Deweys

Esgair y Maesnant S.E. Top (SN 842 856) – Dewey addition

This is one in a series of retrospective Hill Reclassification posts that detail hills whose status has altered in the listing of the Deweys and where I have had direct association with the status change.  These posts will tie in with a forthcoming Change Register giving detail to this list and its alterations since publication in the Mountain tables book.

Esgair y Maesnant S.E. Top (SN 842 856)

The 500-Metre Tops of England and Wales are affectionately known after their hill list compiler; Michael Dewey.  This list mixes metric and imperial height in its criteria to bookend up to the 2000ft height band and takes in all hills in England, Isle of Man and Wales that are 500m and above and below 2000ft (609.6m) in height that have 30m minimum drop.

This list formed one of a number of lists that appeared in the Mountain tables book published by Constable in 1995 and at the time of publication comprised 373 hills with 164 in England, 5 in the Isle of Man and 204 in Wales.  The Deweys have undergone extensive revision since first publication with the initial stages forming the basis of this revision given below:

1995    Mountain tables published by Constable with 373 hills listed as Deweys.

April 2000    Strider (LDWA quarterly booklet) publishes contact details for David Purchase and Myrddyn Phillips who have found and list 24 and 14 possible new 500m tops respectively.

It was expanded versions of the above two lists that formed the basis of the next publication:

25^th May 2000    List of Possible 500 Metre Tops by Michael Dewey listing 44 hills.

David Purchase expands his Additional Dewey 500m Hills and Myrddyn Phillips produces lists of English 500m hills to measure and Welsh 500m hills to measure.

These lists formed the basis of the next publication:

29^th June 2000    Possible/Probable 500’s by Michael Dewey listing 77 hills.  Michael adopts following protocol; if one person proposes that a top should qualify as a 500 by personal survey, and is then confirmed by a second person, it should then be promoted to the main list.

April 2002    The 500+ Tops of England and Wales – The ‘New Deweys’ published in the Strider booklet and listing 66 new qualifying hills.

25^th May 2006    Rob Woodall republishes Michael’s main and possible/probable lists on the RHB Yahoo group file database. 

 

Mountain tables by Michael Dewey

The details for this addition appear below:

The name the hill is listed by in the Deweys is Esgair y Maesnant S.E. Top, and it is adjoined to the Pumlumon group of hills which are situated in the central part of Wales, and it is positioned with the A44 road to its south, and has the town of Llanidloes towards the east.

The Name: Esgair y Maesnant S.E. Top is an invented and directional name based on this hill’s proximity to the adjacent and lower hill of Esgair y Maesnant (SN 832 862).  The hill is named on most Ordnance Survey maps outside of contemporary ones, and is also known locally as Tor Du.

This hill was not included in the original 1995 Constable publication, but with a 506m summit spot height and bwlch contouring between 470m – 480m that appear on the Ordnance Survey 1:50,000 Landranger and 1:25,000 Explorer map, the interpolated drop value was estimated sufficient for this hill to be a potential new Dewey.

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

The above detail was noted by Myrddyn Phillips who then conducted a basic levelling survey (BLS) of this hill on the 11^th July 2000, resulting in 100½ft / 30.6m of drop.  These details were forwarded to the list author; Michael Dewey and the hill was added to the list with the date of survey given in the Remarks column accompanying the list.

As the margin of uncertainty for the BLS method of surveying over terrain such as that on this hill is approximately +/- 2m and as the resulting 30.6m of drop was near the minimum 30m qualifying drop value, this hill was prioritised for a GNSS survey, and this took place on the 18^th July 2016.  The summit and bwlch of this hill were surveyed by Myrddyn Phillips using a Trimble GeoXH 6000, resulting in a 505.6m summit height and a 472.4m bwlch height, with these values giving this hill 33.2m of drop.

The Trimble GeoXH 6000 gathering data at the summit of Esgair y Maesnant S.E. Top

The Trimble GeoXH 6000 set-up position at the bwlch of Esgair y Maesnant S.E. Top

However, since the Trimble GeoXH 6000 survey of this hill, LIDAR has become available.  The LIDAR (Light Detection & Ranging) technique produced highly accurate height data that is now freely available for much of England and Wales. 

LIDAR image of Esgair y Maesnant S.E. Top

The summit and bwlch heights for this hill have now been ascertained from LIDAR analysis initially conducted by Aled Williams and subsequently by Myrddyn Phillips, resulting in a 505.6m summit height and a 472.6m bwlch height, with the latter positioned at SN 83837 85962, which is approximately nine metres from the Trimble set-up position, as the LIDAR position is considered more accurate for that of the bwlch, it is this result that is prioritised for this hill.

The full details for the hill are:

Name:  Esgair y Maesnant S.E. Top

OS 1:50,000 map:  135, 136

OS 1:25,000 map:  214

Summit Height:  505.6m (converted to OSGM15, Trimble GeoXH 6000)

Summit Grid Reference:  SN 84268 85679 (Trimble GeoXH 6000)

Bwlch Height:  472.6m (LIDAR)

Bwlch Grid Reference:  SN 83837 85962 (LIDAR)

Drop:  33.0m (Trimble GeoXH 6000 summit and LIDAR bwlch)

Myrddyn Phillips (June 2020)