Mapping Mountains – Hill Reclassifications – The Fours – The 400m Hills of England

Hawkshead (SD 633 603) – 400m Sub-Four deletion

There has been a deletion to the listing of the The Fours – The 400m Hills of England, with the summit height, col height and their locations, the drop and status of the hill derived from LIDAR analysis conducted by Myrddyn Phillips. 

LIDAR image of Hawkshead (SD 633 603)

The criteria for the list that this deletion applies to are:

The Fours – The 400m Hills of England.  English hills at or above 400m and below 500m in height that have 30m minimum drop, accompanying the main list are three categories of sub hills, with this hill being deleted from the 400m Sub-Four category, the criteria for which are all English hills at or above 400m and below 500m in height that have 20m or more and below 30m of drop.  The list is co-authored by Myrddyn Phillips and Aled Williams and the 2^nd edition of the booklet containing this list was published by Mapping Mountains Publications on the 24^th April 2018.

The Fours - The 400m Hills of England by Myrddyn Phillips and Aled Williams

The name the hill is listed by is Hawkshead and it is adjoined to the Ward’s Stone group of hills, which are situated in the southern Pennines, and it is positioned with a minor road to its north-west and north north-east, the B6480 road farther to its north and the A683 road farther to its north-west, and has the town of High Bentham towards the north.

When the 2^nd edition of the The Fours – The 400m Hills of England was published by Mapping Mountains Publications in April 2018, the hill was included as a 400m Sub-Four and listed with an estimated c 20m of drop, based on the 408m summit spot height that appears on the Ordnance Survey 1:50,000 Landranger and 1:25,000 Explorer map and an estimated c 388m col height based on interpolation of 10m contouring between 380m – 390m. 

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

However, it was not until LIDAR became available that the details for this hill could be accurately re-assessed.  The LIDAR (Light Detection & Ranging) technique produced highly accurate height data that is now freely available for much of England and Wales. 

LIDAR summit image of Hawkshead

LIDAR col image of Hawkshead

Therefore, the deletion of this hill from 400m Sub-Four status is due to LIDAR analysis, resulting in a 407.2m summit height and a 389.8m col height, with these values giving this hill 17.4m of drop, which is insufficient for it to be classified as a 400m Sub-Four.

 

The full details for the hill are:

Group:  Ward’s Stone

Name:  Hawkshead

OS 1:50,000 map:  97

Summit Height:  407.2m (LIDAR)

Summit Grid Reference:  SD 63395 60302 (LIDAR)

Col Height:  389.8m (LIDAR)

Col Grid Reference:  SD 63762 59950 (LIDAR)

Drop:  17.4m (LIDAR)

 

For the additions, deletions and reclassifications to The Fours – The 400m Hills of England reported on Mapping Mountains since the December 2013 publication of the 1^st edition of this list by Europeaklist please consult the following Change Registers:

 

The Fours

 

The Fours – 400m Sub-Four

 

The Fours – 390m Sub-Four

 

The Fours – 390m Double Sub-Four

 

Myrddyn Phillips and Aled Williams (June 2023)