Ffridd Fawr (SH 914 642)
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 detail on contemporary
Ordnance Survey maps.
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 13th May 2017.
The hill is adjoined to the
Mynydd Hiraethog group of hills which are situated
in the north-eastern part of North Wales (Region A, Sub-Region A2), and it is
positioned with the B5384 road to its north-west, the A543 road to its south
and the A544 road to its east, and has the village of Llansannan towards the
north-east.
The hill appeared in the original 300m Welsh P30
list on Geoff Crowder’s v-g.me website under the partly invented and transposed
name of Pen Llyn Beidiog, with an accompanying
note stating; Name from lake to the West.
| Pen Llyn Beidiog | 317m | SH915642 | 116 | 264 | Name from lake to the 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 use the name of a near lake and prefix it with the word Pen.
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 this hill comprises bounded land the Tithe
map was consulted. 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 1378 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 Ffridd Fawr in the apportionments, with the details on the Tithe map appearing in the parish of Llansannan and in the
county named as Denbigh.
 |
| Extract from the apportionments |
Therefore, the name this hill is
now listed by in the Y Trichant – The 300m
Hills of Wales is Ffridd Fawr, and this was derived from the Tithe map.
The full details for the
hill are:
Group: Mynydd Hiraethog
Name: Ffridd Fawr
Previously Listed
Name: Pen Llyn Beidiog
OS 1:50,000 map: 116
Summit Height: 318m (spot height)
Summit Grid
Reference: SH 91406 64254 (hand-held GPS
via DoBIH)
Bwlch Height: c 288m (interpolation)
Bwlch Grid
Reference: SH 91154 63416 (interpolation)
Drop: c 30m (spot height summit and interpolated bwlch)
Myrddyn Phillips (May 2020)
