02.01.15 Minton Hill
(SO 414 919) and Knolls (SO 403 902)
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| Minton Hill (SO 414 919) |
The Long Mynd stretches
for approximately 11 km (7 miles) from north to south with its western land
rising steeply to the plateau above, but it is the eastern ridges and enclosed
valleys that is of most interest. I’d
visited parts of this range of hills with Charlie Leventon in February of last
year and I now wanted to investigate the easterly ridges at the south of the
range.
The small community of
Minton was only just waking up as I parked my car, however three dogs were
ready for a bark and as I joined the right of way that heads straight up toward
Packstone Hill, one of the dogs decided he wanted a hill scamper and led the
way upward on the green track that rises at a steady gradient above Minton.
Every minute or so the
dog would come scampering back to me as if I was a long lost friend; he would
then run off uphill. At one stage he
went to investigate a few sheep, I turned my head expecting the worst, but he
stopped a safe distance from them and then ran back toward the main path. I imagined the dog would be with me for my
entire walk and wondered if I could teach him how to stay away from the Trimble
when it was gathering data. The last
time something like this had happened to me was on Skye when along with John
and Graham we visited Ben Tianavaig (NG 511 409) and were accompanied by a
young cat who playfully followed us all the way to the summit of the hill, then
sat with us as we had a bite to eat and admired the view, and then happily came
back down the hill with us.
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| Graham descending Ben Tianavaig with our surveying cat close behind |
As I approached the
upper part of Minton Hill, two mountain bikers sped down the track, I flagged
them down and explained about the dog, they kindly offered to hold it enabling
me to continue, it easily escaped and then spent five minutes wanting to play
this new game, with us trying to catch it and him teasing us before
running away. As we chatted it suddenly
ran down hill disappearing over the horizon back to Minton. As the cyclists headed the same way I
continued uphill occasionally looking behind wondering if the dog would
re-appear, thankfully it didn’t.
As I headed toward the
summit of Minton Hill the wind strengthened blowing across and down from the
higher plateau, to north-east the distinctive shape of Caer Caradoc stood
out above the town of Church Stretton with the eloquent gradient of Yearlet
framed through the col of Grindle. The
easterly ridges were bronzed with cropped bracken, almost autumnal like their colour
accentuated by an early morning and still low sun.
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Caer Caradoc rising above Church Stretton
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Bronzed ridges
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Yearlet framed through the col of Grindle
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The summit of Minton
Hill is just off of the green track, it consists of a heathery tumulus. Once the Trimble was set up I retired into
the heather and waited for five minutes of data to be collected.
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Gathering data at the summit of Minton Hill
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Minton Hill is listed as
a 400m Sub-Four with 22m of drop and as its connecting and critical col was on my
continuing route I thought it rude not to stop and get more data. I walked down through the heather to the col
and walked up and down on the valley to valley traverse as well as gaining
height on the opposite hill to hill traverse, all done to try and find the
position of the critical col. I then
went to the position where the ten figure grid reference for the 431m spot
height appears on the Ordnance Survey map, its position proved to be slightly
uphill of the valley to valley traverse.
Finding the critical col by eye is not ideal, but it always proves a
good test of judgment, all one can do is assess the ground from a variety of
angles and chose a spot that looks the best.
Once the Trimble had
collected col data I continued on a green track that contoured around the upper
part of the valley known as Minton Batch, ridges descended toward the stream at
its base, one after another, all dulled in colour by having a direct sun behind
them.
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| The view down Minton Batch |
The green track led to
the main hill ridge and the narrow paved road that climbs steeply from the west,
which heads north from where I encountered it and only just misses running over
the high point of the Long Mynd by about 300 metres, before it dips eastward
down to Church Stretton.
Leaving the road behind
I walked toward a gate which gave access to a track and the gliding club. The Midland Gliding Club has been established
on the Long Mynd since 1934, as today was clear the gliders were being prepared
for their flights. Before visiting the
gliders I wanted to get a data set from the first of two possible col positions
for Knolls, which was my next hill to visit.
When I stood on top of Minton Hill I looked out toward each possible col
position and had visually dismissed the second as being the higher. The first position has a large pond on it, I
walked to its western tip and judged that the land at its eastern tip was
probably slightly higher, I then walked back to this and judged that as the
adjacent track leading to the gliding club was on the hill to hill traverse and
that land hereabouts would be difficult to judge if the natural col was under
the track I decided to place the Trimble on the edge of the track.
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| Gathering data at the first option for the col of Knolls |
Once the Trimble was
gathering data I stood up the track to its south and soon had to flag two
mountain bikers down, I quickly explained what I was doing and they kindly
diverted through the heather, another three mountain bikers soon followed, they
also diverted from the track. Just as
the five minutes of allotted data collection was nearing its end a van appeared
at the gate leading to the track, a couple of the cyclists waved toward me to
see if it was OK for the van to proceed, I checked the Trimble; 300 points
collected, I switched it off, the van passed as I stood beside the Trimble and
I put it back in its case and headed up to the gliding club.
All manner of activity
was happening with gliders being towed into position awaiting their turn to
drop off the western edge of the Long Mynd and soar on the thermals. I chatted with a couple of people; both
commented how chilly the wind was.
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| The Midland Gliding Club |
Leaving the gliding club
I headed toward the second possible position for the critical col of Knolls,
this was beside what looked like the landing strip for the gliders. I chose my spot next to small puddles of
standing water and gathered another data set.
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| Gathering data at the second option for the col of Knolls |
As I continued up
another track toward the last summit of the day I looked back on the ridge of
Minton Hill which was deep in heather brown with the sun highlighting the
greens in its foreground.
The whole of the Long
Mynd seems to be an outdoor play ground as its many tracks and ridges are
frequently used by horse riders, two of whom I’d spotted on Knolls as I left
the gliding club, as well as mountain bikers, walkers and the clientele of the
gliding club, all happily going about their business.
The track led toward the
tumulus atop Knolls, soon the Trimble was set up and I stood in the heather
admiring the summit area of the hill.
About 100 metres south of the tumulus is the hill’s trig pillar, it is
positioned on ground that is lower than that of the tumulus but it seemed to be
on a slight high point all of its own.
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| Gathering data at the summit of Knolls |
After collecting data on
the tumulus I did likewise on the highest ground immediately beside the trig
pillar. By now bulbous clouds were
skimming their way across the sky with the sun suddenly brightening the land as
it re-appeared. As the last data set of
the day was collected I took a few photos of the trig position in relation to
that of the tumulus. Once data were
collected I packed the Trimble away and headed back to the tumulus and the
adjacent track that headed into the large conifer plantation that swallows up
the western land of Knolls.
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| Gathering data beside the trig on Knolls with the hill's tumulus in the background on the right |
The forest track led
down toward open lower hillside, across Minton Batch the sun shone on the ridge
I’d walked up earlier in the day, with the greens of grass and gorse and the
dulled browns of bracken adding depth to the scene.
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| The view across the lower section of Minton Batch |
I followed footpaths
down to the valley and listened to bird song in the warmth of the sun as I
reached the narrow lane on the outskirts of Minton; it was almost a heralding
of spring even before true winter sets in.
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| LIDAR image of Minton Hill (SO 414 919) |
Postscript:
Since the survey of these hills full LIDAR coverage is now
available. The LIDAR (Light Detection & Ranging) technique
produced highly accurate height and positional data that is now freely
available for England and Wales. Consequently the numerical details
for these hills have been analysed using this technique, resulting in the LIDAR
height and position for some of these hills being prioritised over that
produced by the Trimble GeoXH 6000.
Survey Result:
Minton Hill
Summit Grid Reference: SO 41456 91920 (Trimble GeoXH 6000)
Col Height: 431.9m (LIDAR)
Col Grid Reference: SO 41252 92137 (LIDAR)
Drop: 23.5m (Trimble GeoXH 6000 summit and LIDAR col)
Dominance: 5.15% (Trimble GeoXH 6000 summit and LIDAR col)
Knolls
Summit Height: 457.6m (converted to OSGM15, Trimble GeoXH 6000)
Summit Grid Reference: SO 40332 90241 (Trimble GeoXH 6000)
Col Height: 421.7m (LIDAR)
Col Grid Reference: SO 40454 91783 (LIDAR)
Drop: 35.9m (Trimble GeoXH 6000 summit and LIDAR col)
Dominance: 7.85% (Trimble GeoXH 6000 summit and LIDAR col)
For further details please
consult the Trimble survey spreadsheet click {here}
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