Mapping Mountains – Significant Name Changes – 100m Twmpau

Yr Arwydd (SH 388 824)

There has been a Significant Name Change to a hill that is listed in the 100m Twmpau, with the summit height determined by a survey with the Trimble GeoXH 6000 conducted by Myrddyn Phillips, which took place on the 28^th October 2018.

The summit of Yr Arwydd is in the background on the right

The criteria for the list that this name change applies to are:

               

100m Twmpau - Welsh hills at or above 100m and below 200m in height with 30m minimum drop, with an accompanying sub list entitled the 100m Sub-Twmpau with the criteria for this sub category being all Welsh hills at or above 100m and below 200m in height with 20m or more and below 30m of drop, with the word Twmpau being an acronym standing for thirty welsh metre prominences and upward.

The hill is adjoined to the Ynys Môn group of hills, which are situated in the north-western part of North Wales (Region A, Sub-Region A1), and it is positioned with the B5112 road to its south-east, and has the small community of Carmel to its south-west.

When the origin 100m height band of Welsh P30 hills were published on Geoff Crowder’s v-g.me website, this hill was listed under the partly invented and transposed name of Bryn Carmel, with an accompanying note stating; Name from hamlet to the South-West.

Bryn Carmel

116m

SH388825

114

262

Trig pillar. Name from hamlet 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 the small community to the south-west of the summit of the hill and put the word Bryn in front of 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

As the summit of this hill comprises bounded land the details for it were examined on the Tithe map.  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 Welsh Tithe Maps website showing the comparison details taken from the Ordnance Survey Six-Inch map

The enclosed land where the summit of this hill is situated is given the number 30a 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 Yr arwydd in the apportionments, with the details on the Tithe map appearing in the parish of Llechgynfarwy and in the county named as Anglesey.

Extract from the apportionments

After visiting this hill I asked a person who was working outside one of the houses in Carmel if they knew where the local farmer lived, I was directed up the lane to a bungalow which is positioned beside the field where the summit of the hill is situated.  Having knocked on its door, Medwen Roberts opened it and greeted me with a smile, I said hello and introduced myself and explained my interest in her field and asked if she knew a name for the hill or the field where its summit is situated, she told me the hill has no name but the field is known as Yr Arwydd.  During our conversation Medwen explained that this is her field and that she had lived in Carmel for 60 years and is now aged 79.  Before leaving I walked to the gate with Medwen that gives access to her field from her bungalow and she kindly stood beside it whilst I took a series of photographs.

Medwen Roberts

Therefore, the name this hill is now listed by in the 100m Twmpau is Yr Arwydd, and this was derived from the Tithe map and substantiated by local enquiry.

The full details for the hill are:

Group:  Ynys Môn

Name:  Yr Arwydd

Previously Listed Name:  Bryn Carmel 

OS 1:50,000 map:  114

Summit Height:  116.9m (converted to OSGM15)

Summit Grid Reference:  SH 38800 82447

Bwlch Height:  c 79m

Bwlch Grid Reference:  SH 40939 83373 (I)

 

Drop:  c 38m

For details on the summit survey of this hill

Myrddyn Phillips (May 2019)

Mapping Mountains – Trimble Surveys – Mynydd Twr

28.10.18  Yr Arwydd (SH 388 824)  

By the time I had driven to the small community of Carmel the morning’s blue sky had an imposter quickly edging in from the north as a large shower cloud pushed inland.  But as the summit of this hill is only a minute or so from the convenience of a road I hoped that assessing the lay of land and conducting the Trimble survey could be finished before any heavy downpour materialised.

Having parked my car adjacent to the Church I walked down the road to the intersecting B road and a few steps later was at the gate which gave access to the grazing field where the summit of Yr Arwydd is positioned.

This hill has a trig pillar close to its high point and a mound of grassed earthen rubble near it, and a pool just below it.  However, the recognised summit of the hill is a short distance between the trig pillar and the houses of Carmel and consists of a small grassy rise. 

I soon positioned the Trimble on top of my rucksack with its internal antenna aligned to the high point of the hill, with the rucksack acting as an improvised tripod to give the Trimble elevation above its immediate surrounds, and with the offset between its internal antenna and the ground below measured and noted I waited until the 0.1m accuracy level was attained before data should be logged.

Gathering data at the summit of Yr Arwydd

Once the Trimble was beeping away collecting its individual datum points I headed to the trig pillar and took a number of photos with the shower cloud now looming toward Carmel and a rainbow cast across the sky.

View from the summit of Yr Arwydd

Looking from the trig pillar to the Trimble set-up position at the summit of Yr Arwydd

As the last of the 300 datum points were being gathered and stored the first wind-blown rain drops sped across the land, I hoped that the rain would not develop in to anything heavier, thankfully it didn’t and its appearance added variety to an otherwise blissful blue skied morning.

Once I’d packed the Trimble away I headed back to my car and asked a man who was working on the adjacent house if he was local and explained my interest in the name of the hill.  He said that I should visit the woman at the bungalow just up the road as the field where the summit of the hill is situated is a part of her farm.  The woman’s name was Medwen Roberts.

Prior to my visit I’d looked at the Tithe map and the field where the summit of this hill is situated is named Yr Arwydd at the time of the Tithe.  I walked up the road to the bungalow and knocked on the door, Medwen Roberts answered and we chatted about her field, and she told me that she’d lived here for 60 years with her husband and that the name of the field is Yr Arwydd.

Medwen Roberts

Many field names change over the course of time, and those given on the Tithe map are the ones that were known at the time that the Tithe was documented, however there are many field names that remain the same, with their name passed down from one generation to the next, this is usually done orally rather than in the written form, which is traditional amongst the farming community in much of Wales.

This hill was first listed as Bryn Carmel in the original Welsh P30 lists, this name was an invention on my part and one that sounds rather clunky to say the least, this invented name is still used in the Tumps with the collator of that list having duplicated the Anglesey section that I originated, unfortunately the Tump collator did not credit me for this and put his own name to my work.  It is good to finally list this hill by an appropriate name; after that for the field where its summit is situated, with this name given on the Tithe and substantiated from local enquiry with Medwen Roberts.

Survey Result:

Yr Arwydd (significant name change) 

Summit Height:  116.9m (converted to OSGM15, Trimble GeoXH 6000)

Summit Grid Reference:  SH 38800 82447 (Trimble GeoXH 6000)

Bwlch Height: c 79m (interpolation)

Bwlch Grid Reference:  SH 40939 83373 (interpolation)

Drop:  c 38m (Trimble GeoXH 6000 summit and interpolated bwlch)

Dominance:  32.42% (Trimble GeoXH 6000 summit and interpolated bwlch)

For further details please consult the Trimble Survey Spreadsheet