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

Calf Top (SD 664 856) – Dewey deletion

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.

Calf Top (SD 664 856)

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 deletion appear below:

The name the hill is listed by in the Deweys is Calf Top, and it is adjoined to the Ingleborough group of hills which are situated in the central Pennines of northern England, and it is positioned with the A683 and the M6 roads to its west, and has the small town of Sedbergh towards the north and the small community of Barbon towards the south-west.

This hill was included in the original 1995 Constable publication and listed with a 609m summit height which is adjoined to a triangulation pillar given the flush bracket height of 609.600m in the OS Trig Database, and which appears as a spot height on the Ordnance Survey 1:50,000 Landranger and 1:25,000 Explorer maps.

As its 609m summit spot height was near the benchmark height of 2000ft (609.6m) it was prioritised for a GNSS survey and this took place on the 15^th April 2010.  The summit of this hill was surveyed by John Barnard, Graham Jackson and Myrddyn Phillips using a Leica 530 with two hours of data gathered, resulting in a summit height at the time of 609.61m.

Gathering data during the first Leica 530 survey of Calf Top

As this result was so close to the benchmark height of 2000ft (609.6m) it was decided to re-visit and gather a further four hours of data.  The second survey was conducted on the 20th May 2010 by John Barnard, Graham Jackson and Myrddyn Phillips using a Leica 530, resulting in a summit height at that time of 609.62m.  As the results from these surveys were so close to the 2000ft / 609.6m height the two data sets were sent to Ordnance Survey and were processed using their Bernese software, resulting in a summit height of 609.58m.

Gathering data during the second Leica 530 survey of Calf Top

This result was re-assessed in August 2016 when Ordnance Survey adopted their new OSTN15 / OSGM15 model which replaced their OSTN02 / OSGM02 model.  The adoption of the OSTN15 / OSGM15 model increased the known height of hills in England by an average of 2cm - 4cm, and in the case of Calf Top this resulted in its known accurate height increasing to 609.61m, which is higher than the maximum 2000ft (609.6m) height for Dewey status. 

These details were forwarded to the list author; Michael Dewey and the hill was deleted from his list in September 2016.

The full details for the hill are:

Name:  Calf Top

OS 1:50,000 map:  98

OS 1:25,000 map:  2

Summit Height:  609.61m (converted to OSGM15, Leica 530)

Summit Grid Reference:  SD 66450 85624 (Leica 530)

Col Height:  c 289m (interpolation)

Col Grid Reference:  SD 68178 86259 (interpolation)

Drop:  c 321m (Leica 530 summit and interpolated col)

Myrddyn Phillips (October 2020)

Mapping Mountains – Hill Reclassifications – Hewitts

Calf Top (SD 664 856) – SubHewitt reclassified to Hewitt

This is one in a series of retrospective Hill Reclassification posts that detail hills whose status has altered in the listing of the English Hewitts (an acronym for Hill in England, Wales or Ireland over Two Thousand feet high).  These reclassification posts will give details of hills where I have had direct association with their change of status, and they will tie in with a forthcoming Change Register giving detail to this list and its alterations since first publication.

The listing of English Hewitts was published in booklet format by TACit Tables in June 1997 and entitled The Hewitts and Marilyns of England.  This list evolved out of The Absolute Summits of England and Wales which were known as the Sweats (an acronym for Summits in Wales and England Above Two-thousand FEET) and which was published by Cicerone Press in 1992 in the book entitled The Relative Hills of Britain.  The list compiler for the Hewitts and the preceding Sweats is Alan Dawson.

When the English Hewitts list was published in booklet format there were 178 qualifying hills listed with their criteria being any English hill at or above 2000ft (609.6m) in height with 30m minimum drop, accompanying the main list are two sub category’s entitled SubHewitts, with the two sets of criteria being any English hill at or above 600m and below 2000ft (609.6m) in height that have a minimum drop of 30m and any English hill at or above 2000ft (609.6m) in height with 20m or more and below 30m of drop.

The Hewitts and Marilyns of England by Alan Dawson

The details for the hill reclassification appear below:

The name of the hill is Calf Top, and it is situated in the Central Pennines of northern England, and is positioned with the A683 and the M6 roads to its west, and has the small town of Sedbergh towards the north and the small community of Barbon towards the south-west.

Calf Top (SD 664 856) from Castle Knott

Prior to this hill’s reclassification to Hewitt status it was listed as a SubHewitt with 312m of drop based on the 609m summit spot height that appeared on the Ordnance Survey 1:50,000 Landranger and 1:25,000 Explorer maps of the day and a col height of 297m.

As its 609m summit spot height was near the benchmark height of 2000ft (609.6m) it was prioritised for a GNSS survey and this took place on the 15th April 2010.  The hill was surveyed by John Barnard, Graham Jackson and Myrddyn Phillips using a Leica 530 and two hours of data were gathered, resulting in a summit height at that time of 609.61m.

Gathering data with the Leica 530 during the first summit survey of Calf Top

As this result was so close to the benchmark height of 2000ft (609.6m) it was decided to re-visit and gather a further four hours of data.  The second survey was conducted on the 20th May 2010 by John Barnard, Graham Jackson and Myrddyn Phillips using a Leica 530, resulting in a summit height at that time of 609.62m.  As the results from these surveys were so close to the 2000ft / 609.6m height the two data sets were sent to Ordnance Survey and were processed using their Bernese software, resulting in a summit height of 609.58m.

Gathering data with the Leica 530 during the second summit survey of Calf Top

This height was reassessed in August 2016 when Ordnance Survey adopted their new OSTN15 / OSGM15 model which replaced their OSTN02 / OSGM02 model.  The adoption of the OSTN15 / OSGM15 model increased the known height of hills in England by an average of 2cm - 4cm, and in the case of Calf Top this resulted in its known accurate height increasing to 609.61m, which is higher than the minimum 2000ft (609.6) height required for Hewitt status.

The reclassification of this hill from Sub-Hewitt to Hewitt status was accepted by the list author and its new classification augmented in to the listing of the Hewitts in August September 2016.

The full details for the hill are:

Name:  Calf Top

OS 1:50,000 map:  98

OS 1:25,000 map:  2

Summit Height:  609.61m (converted to OSGM15)

Summit Grid Reference:  SD 66450 85624

Col Height:  297m

Col Grid Reference:  SD 682 867

Drop:  313m

Myrddyn Phillips (June 2019)

On Location with Stream Publishing

Introduction:

Stream Publishing is based in Surrey and was created in 2008 and have twice won the prestigious PPA (Professional Publisher’s Association) Customer Magazine of the Year Award for Independent Publishers.  One of these awards was for Vauxhall’s V Magazine; this magazine is published twice annually and sent to new car and van customers for three years from the date of purchase of their vehicle, and has a circulation of 370,000.  Each issue of this magazine concentrates on a theme, with the resourceful issue, the connected issue, the happy issue and the secrets issue being recent examples.

Toward the end of October 2016 I was contacted by Stream Publishing who were putting together their latest V Magazine, with the theme based on the new issue.  As a part of this magazine Vauxhall wanted to showcase their new Mokka X, which is a rugged 4x4 SUV lifestyle vehicle, and as Calf Top had just been recognised as Britain’s newest mountain they wanted to do a photo shoot with the vehicle beside Calf Top and run a back story on how it was measured and reclassified as Britain’s newest mountain.  

Photo Shoot:

Arranging to meet in Kendal in early November I made my way up the motorway in grey weather arriving in the late afternoon and settling myself into the Premier Inn for the evening.

There had been extensive communication leading up to this forthcoming meeting, some of it based on the Mokka X being photographed on the hill, and other aspects concentrating on getting the Stream Publishing crew to the summit of Calf Top, both were dependent upon the weather with photographic opportunity for the vehicle ideally based lower on the hill either in the valley to the east or on a track that emerges on the western side of the hill.

Any outdoor photo shoot is dependent upon the weather and as I headed down for breakfast early the following morning the streets of Kendal were bathed in grey skies, thankfully the forecast of rain had not yet materialised.

One by one the crew from Stream Publishing arrived; with Kevin Ingles the Art Director and Tim Gibson the Journalist introducing themselves, with the third member of the crew being Wayne Lennon, an independent Photographer.  We considered our options and decided that the Premier Inn’s sausages were the main priority and that finishing breakfast before venturing outside was the order of the day.

Once breakfast was finished we headed out, waiting in the car park was the Mokka X looking resplendent and ready for its fifteen minutes of fame, with it sharing its impending limelight with Calf Top; which is an unobtrusive looking hill that due to the perseverance of independent surveyors and the remodelling of Britain by Ordnance Survey with the adoption of OSGM15 resulting in the increase of accurately known heights, had now been reclassified to 2,000ft mountain status.

The Mokka X with (L-R) Tim Gibson (Journalist), Wayne Lennon (Photographer) and Kevin Ingles (Art Director).

We headed toward Barbon, a small village in the South Lakeland district of Cumbria and which has been designated a part of the Yorkshire Dales National Park since 1^st August 2016.  Kevin led the way with Wayne in his vehicle, having reckied the ground the day before, whilst I sat next to Tim in the Mokka X with an mp3 recorder already switched on ready to interview me on the way.  This can sometimes be disconcerting but Tim had a light hearted and friendly manner which helped proceedings whizz along.

Barbon is situated on the south-western periphery of Calf Top with the 538m map heighted summit of Castle Knott between the village and the mountain top.  As we drew up in the village the cloud was low on the hill and therefore Kevin directed us through the village toward a paved lane leading to a track which would take us up the south-western slopes of Castle Knott.  This would at least give Wayne opportunity to photograph the immediate surrounds and gain an unobstructed view below the cloud base.  On the way we checked the route of the public footpath leading toward the south-western ridge with Richard Pedley who was out on a quad bike with his sheepdog.

Heading for the hill

Richard Pedley and sheepdog

Realising that the afternoon forecast was not good and as the murk preceding darkness would fall before 4.00pm and therefore time to reach the summit and photograph proceedings was limited, Kevin instructed that the back story photo shoot should take place on a slight rocky top overlooking the River Lune in the valley below which was to our west, and that the main photo shoot with the Mokka X would take place in the eastern valley on the narrow country lane that follows the course of the Barkin Beck with Calf Top looming above in the murk to the west.

Wayne assembling the drone

Reaching the small rocky top I was asked to assemble the Trimble on its tripod and smile appropriately as Wayne launched his drone for aerial views of proceedings.  Kevin instructed Wayne to take photos from a number of angles with the small rock outcrop proving an ideal vantage point considering how murky it must have been higher on the summit of Calf Top.

Wayne and the drone ready to fly high and photograh proceedings

Murky conditions in the Yorkshire Dales

Happy that Wayne had gathered suitable photographs showing the Trimble and its attentive surveyor, Kevin now wanted to concentrate on the Mokka X; therefore we headed down the hill back on the track and narrow paved lane to the awaiting cars before driving up the eastern valley to find a suitable spot to start the photo shoot for the Mokka X.

The next couple of hours proved fun and insightful watching a professional Photographer and an Art Director collaborate finding suitable places and backdrops to photograph the Mokka X, which was being cared for attentively with every speck of mud quickly wiped off and each panel polished.  During this process the weather closed in and the first specks of forecast rain started to fall as light drizzle.

With Tim at the controls the Mokka X was taken on a slippery off-road route contouring on and then up steep green tracks; always with Kevin in attendance and Wayne being directed where photographs needed to be taken.  I tried keeping myself on the periphery as although I had now fulfilled the back story shoot I still wanted to experience the remainder of the main shoot.

The Mokka X being put through its photographic paces

Once Tim had driven the Mokka X down beside one of the small tributaries of the Barkin Beck and positioned it with an expanse of autumnal hillside and rusted bracket as a backdrop, Wayne took the last series of photographs before the weather worsened.

The Mokka X

With all equipment accounted for and packed away Kevin instructed an end to the photo shoot until later in the afternoon and off we went to the Barbon Inn for a well-deserved lunchtime meal.

Lunch time stop; the Barbon Inn

After lunch Kevin, Tim and Wayne wanted to get a few shots of the village before heading toward The Ryebeck to meet their new chef; Chris Lee.  This elegant country house hotel and its new chef were to form the third segment in the next V Magazine under the theme of the new issue. 

Postscript:

It had been an extremely enjoyable experience meeting the crew from Stream Publishing and I thank them for their interest in mountain surveying and putting me at ease during the back story photo shoot.

The Vauxhall V Magazine duly arrived in the post with its themed issue based on all things new and on pages 16 – 25 is Tim’s excellent article entitled Peak Performance, with Calf Top and the Trimble taking centre stage on pages 18 – 23 for their fifteen minutes of fame.

Myrddyn Phillips (August 2017)

Lakeland Walker - Magazine

The latest edition of Lakeland Walker magazine

The latest edition of Lakeland Walker magazine has published an article on how Cumbria’s newest mountain measures up, giving details on the survey of Calf Top and its inclusion into the ranks of 2,000ft mountains.

The article appears on pages 21 – 23 and my thanks to the team at the magazine, especially Jon Manning who proved, as always a delight to deal with.  The magazine is available in all reputable news outlets including a newsagent in Hebdon Bridge where Lou boosted the sales by one and treated herself to a copy.

A must get - the latest edition of Lakeland Walker magazine

Prospective Ordnance Survey Datum Change and the effect on Mountain Heights

The Sunday Times have published a piece on the prospective reclassification to some of the hills in Britain if Ordnance Survey changed the height of their datum point based on current or future mean sea level. 

The Sunday Times article this morning

Mean sea level is regarded to have increased in height since the second geodetic levelling was completed by Ordnance Survey in 1921 and the third in 1956, both of which were based from measurements taken at Newlyn.

It is now accepted that sea levels are rising by around 1½ inches (4cm) per decade, and it is almost 100 years since the second geodetic levelling at Newlyn was completed, based on these simplified figures mean sea level would be approximately 40cm higher nowadays compared to the height of the current mean sea level datum point. 

If Ordnance Survey updated their datum point in a decade's time the height difference between the current point at Newlyn and an updated datum point would be approximately 40-45cm.  The hills that have been accurately surveyed by GPS/GNSS equipment that will be affected if Ordnance Survey alter their datum point, and therefore all known heights throughout Britain are reduced by 40-45cm appear below.

The Munros (Scotland, 3,000ft minimum height and above):

Beinn Teallach    914.6m summit height at NN 36139 85964.

 

The Leica set-up position on Beinn Teallach, sometimes it can get a wee bit windy on these Munros!

Corbetts (Scotland, 2,500ft and above and below 3,000ft in height with 500ft minimum drop):

Beinn na h-Uamha    762.4m summit height at NM 91719 66415.

Simms (Britain, 600m minimum height with 30m minimum drop):

Y Gribin    600.4m summit height at SH 84356 17712.

Foel Lwyd    600.1m summit height at SH 72040 72326.

Alan Dawson beside the Leica RX1250 at the summit of Y Gribin

Hewitts (England and Wales, 2,000ft minimum height with 30m minimum drop):

Nuttalls (Englland and Wales, 2,000ft Minimum height with 15m minimum drop):

Bloodybush Edge    609.8m summit height at NT 90223 14342.

Thack Moor    609.65m summit height at NY 61166 46278.

Calf Top    609.61m summit height at SD 66450 85624.

Tal y Fan    610.0m summit height at SH 72936 72648.

Mynydd Graig Goch    609.75m summit height at SH 49732 48518.

Thack Moor

Calf Top

Tal y Fan

Deweys (England, Wales and Isle of Man, 500m and above and below 609.6m (2,oooft) in height with 30m minimum drop):

Ffridd yr Allt Llwyd    500.4m summit height at SH 79724 29615.

Jo Barnard beside the Leica equipment on the summit of Ffridd yr Allt Llwyd

Y Pedwarau (Wales, 400m and above and below 500m in height with 30m minimum drop):

Craig y Dduallt    400.3m (converted to OSGM15) summit height at SJ 23280 40062.

Moel Tywysog    400.2m (converted to OSGM15)  summit height at SH 98480 65714.

Mynydd Deulyn    400.1m (converted to OSGM15) summit height at SH 75936 61265.

The summit of Moel Tywysog

 

The summit cairn atop Mynydd Deulyn

The above only take in a small percentage of the listings that have been compiled, and there are other listings that use a minimum height in their criteria, such as the Grahams and The Fours, but there are no hills that have been accurately surveyed with GPS/GNSS receiver within these listings that would be affected.  However, there are also a multitude of hills in all sorts of listings that are near to threshold minimum heights that have not yet been accurately surveyed by Differential GPS.  Therefore the overall changes within hill listings caused by a change and updating by Ordnance Survey of their datum point would be dramatic.

Myrddyn Phillips (October 2016)



The Times website

A related article published on The Guardian website

A related article published on The Telegraph website

A related article published on The Express website

A related article published on the WalesOnline website

A related article published on The Courier Mail website 

A related article published on The Daily Post website

A related article published on The Mail Online website