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

Tyn Bryn (SN 929 813) 

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 LIDAR analysis and a subsequent Trimble GeoXH 6000 survey conducted by Myrddyn Phillips. 

Tyn Bryn (SN 929 813) on right with Marsh's Pool on left

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. 

Y Trichant - The 300m Hills of Wales by Myrddyn Phillips

The hill is adjoined to the Pumlumon group of hills, which are situated in the north-western part of Mid and West Wales (Region B, Sub-Region B2), and it is positioned with a minor road to its north-west and the A470 road to its south-east, and has the village of Llangurig towards the west south-west. 

The hill appeared in the original 300m Welsh P30 list on Geoff Crowder’s v-g.me website under the transposed and invented name of Marsh’s Pool Top, with an accompanying note stating; Name from pool to the South-West.

Marsh's Pool Top

393m

SN929813

136

214

Name from pool to the South-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 transpose the name of a pool and add the word Top to 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

During the walk taking in this hill and before visiting its summit I called at Pen-hyle-mawr (SN 919 805) and met David Howells and his son; Christopher.  They told me their family had moved to this farm in 1952 and when asked about this hill they said the land incorporating it was sold by the farm of Coedcochion Mawr (SN 934 811) about ten years ago.  They went on to tell me that the hill is known as Tyn Bryn, after the old farm of the same name, which appears as Ty’n-y-Bryn on the Ordnance Survey Six-Inch series of maps and is positioned at SN 93177 81299. 

David and Christopher Howells

The walk took in six hills and was done in the company of Suzanne; a good friend who lives in Llanidloes.  Dscending from the last hill we met John Davies of Cefn-y-bwlch (SN 938 825).  We stayed with John for about 20 minutes, talking about life in Llanidloes, the hills and his farm.  John is aged 70 and his parents bought this farm in 1945 and he has farmed from here all his adult life.  During our conversation I asked about field names and he proceeded to give names for all the fields adjoined to his farm, including the Elephant Field, known as such as the person who owned it used to run the Elephant pub in Llanidloes!  I also asked about this hill and whether John knew a name for it, ‘that would be Tyn Bryn’ was his reply. 

John Davies

Therefore, the name this hill is now listed by in the Y Trichant – The 300m Hills of Wales is Tyn Bryn and this was derived from local enquiry. 

 

The full details for the hill are: 

Group:  Pumlumon 

Name:  Tyn Bryn 

Previously Listed Name:  Marsh’s Pool Top 

OS 1:50,000 map:  136

Summit Height:  392.1m (converted to OSGM15)                                                           

Summit Grid Reference:  SN 92957 81324 

Bwlch Height:  326.2m (converted to OSGM15) 

Bwlch Grid Reference:  SN 91955 80581 

Drop:  65.9m 

 

Myrddyn Phillips (November 2021)