Park Quarry (SN 428 120)
There has been a Significant Name Change to a hill that is
listed in the 30-99m Twmpau and Y Trechol – The Dominant Hills of Wales, with the summit and bwlch height and
position confirmed by LIDAR analysis conducted by Myrddyn Phillips.
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| LIDAR image of Park Quarry |
The criteria for the two listings that this name change applies
to are:
30-99m Twmpau - Welsh hills at or above 30m and below 100m in height with 30m minimum
drop, with an accompanying sub list entitled the 30-99m Sub-Twmpau with the criteria for this sub category being all
Welsh hills at or above 30m and below 100m 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.
Y Trechol - The Dominant Hills of
Wales - Welsh P30 hills whose prominence
equal or exceed half that of their absolute height. With the
criteria for Lesser Dominant status being those addition Welsh P30 hills whose
prominence is 33.3% or more and below 50% of their absolute height, with the
Introduction to the Mapping Mountains publication of this list appearing on the
3rd December 2015.
The hill is adjoined to the Mynydd Sylen group of
hills, which are situated in the western
part of South Wales (Region C, Sub-Region C1), and is positioned with the stream valley of the
Gwendraeth Fach to the south and east, and the A 484 road to the west, and has
the small town of Cydweli (Kidwelly) towards the south.
The hill originally appeared in the 30-99m P30
list on Geoff Crowder’s v-g.me website under the invented name of Pen Ystrad-fawr with an accompanying
note stating; Name from buildings to the
South-West.
Pen Ystrad-fawr
|
93m
|
159
|
177/178
|
Name from buildings 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. 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 Tithe map |
The enclosed land where the summit of this hill is
situated is given the number 798 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 Park Quarry in the apportionments, with the details on the Tithe map appearing in the parish of Llandefailog and in the
county named as Carmarthen.
 |
| Extract from the apportionments |
Therefore, the name this hill is now listed by in
the 30-99m Twmpau and Y Trechol - The Dominant Hills of Wales is Park Quarry, and
this was derived from the Tithe map.
The full details for the hill are:
Group: Mynydd Sylen
Name: Park Quarry
Previously Listed Name:
Pen Ystrad-fawr
Summit Height: 93.9m
(LIDAR)
OS 1:50,000 map: 159
Summit Grid Reference:
SN 42853 12091 and SN 42859 12091 (LIDAR)
Drop: 48.5m (LIDAR)
Dominance: 51.63%
Myrddyn Phillips (November 2018)
