The History of Welsh Hill Lists

The History of Welsh Hill Lists – Part 11

The Early Years

1950-1962

1954 – Ted Moss

Only two years later and Ted Moss updated his list again and so in 1954 the Rucksack Club Journal published a one page article entitled “More Welsh Two-thousands”.

The latest update was initiated by the publishing of the new Seventh Series Edition of the Ordnance Survey One-Inch map.  All the contours on the new map had been re-drawn.  This resulted in many changes.

Front cover to the 1954 Rucksack Club Journal

Eight new Welsh Two-Thousands were added to the list.  Two of these are of particular note – Pumlumon Fach, which Moss called Pumlumon Fach, N.W. Top and Allt Lwyd in the Brecon Beacons – both receiving their first ever listing.

Moss passes comment on the anomalies between the old Popular Edition One-Inch map and the new Seventh Series Edition; “The new map is no more consistent than the old one, for several prominent peaks have no contour rings on it.  Pen Helig, for instance, unmistakably a peak on the ground and with two contour rings on the old map, has none on the new,” and “Allt Lwyd had no contour ring on the popular edition but has two rings on the new map”.

The last update that Ted Moss produced for his Two-thousands

Study of the new maps showed that seventeen tops had lost their contour rings.    Moss decided not to list these and ends his article emphasizing that; “It is of course, convenient to use the map as a standard but the claims of many tops can really only be decided on the spot”.

Ted Moss had been a doyen of early hill list compilation.  This second update to his 1940 list proved to be the last.  It is also the last time Ted Moss will lead an active part in our story.  It is only fitting that the first person to have published a list to the 2,000 ft mountains of Wales, and the first known person to complete an ascent of all 612 of these mountains, should have the last word in this particular segment of Wales’s hill list story, as Moss’s experience gained and memories held come forth in his writing and quite eloquently sums up his feeling for these hills:

“To those who prefer the dull routine of well-remembered and too-often accomplished ascents, the peak-bagger is one who dashes soullessly from top to top and whose memory of the day can be summed-up in a tick on a list.  But to me collecting tops in a list provides a framework for widening experience in the fascination of fresh country, unknown hills, and other natural beauties.  The pursuit of two-thousands has taken me to many places I should otherwise never have visited; it has, in fact, taken me into some of the most God-forsaken spots in this country as well as to some of the most delectable”.

“After years spent in the wilderness one can return with renewed interest and appreciation to the choice beauties of the more popular places.  And when I am asked what I am going to do now that I have finished the two-thousands I reply that for the time being I am going to please myself what I do.  For in the later stages the game almost became my master.  The remaining tops were too often in my leisure thoughts as I calculated the map miles and feet of ascent, the most efficient grouping, the number that could be sandwiched into a week-end.  I almost felt guilty when I went rock-climbing.  But if I am pressed for an answer to the question my reply is that I am going to collect stamps with pictures of mountains on them!”

Next instalment due on the 30^th November 2015

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The History of Welsh Hill Lists

The History of Welsh Hill Lists – Part 10

The Early Years

1950-1962

1952 – Ted Moss

By this time the small disperse community of Welsh hill list compilers only numbered seven – Corbett, Carr and Lister, Parker, Moss, Walsh and, most recently, Rowland.  Two of these, Walsh and Moss, were now in correspondence with one another swapping information and ideas.  This, in time, had a direct result on the next instalment of our story.

The year is now 1952.  Ted Moss had recently become the first person to complete his and Simpson’s combined lists to the Two-thousands of England and Wales.  But further studies of the maps proved that certain qualifying tops to his 1940 list had been missed.  I will let the father of the 2,000 foot published hill list take up the story; “My object is to tidy up the published lists of two-thousands.  In going over the whole of the ground I have found F.H.F. Simpson’s list for the Lake District to be extremely accurate and there appears to be only one omission from it.  My own lists for the Rest of England and Wales are somewhat less complete and several tops, mostly small, but all conforming to the 50 foot contour ring definition have come to light”.

The update was published in the 1952 edition of the Rucksack Club Journal. It consisted of a four page article entitled ‘All Those Two-Thousands’ – although the main purpose of the article is to list the newly found tops, it is much more than just an update to an existing list and is more of an introductory text to Moss’s thoughts on the two-thousands, and proved by far the most expansive text Moss wrote in conjunction with his hill lists.  For this reason it is worthwhile quoting in detail from it:

Front cover to the 1952 Rucksack Club Journal

“It can be argued that to every man there are as many Snowdons as he has made ascents, but the fastnesses of the Black Mountains or the shy secrets of Radnor Forest can give him something more that Snowdon can never give, however many ways he climbs it.  It is true that the pursuit of the unknown becomes a habit and one has to beware of a tendency to reject even the finest peak with a curt ‘Not likely, I’ve done it’, or ‘Going up Cross Fell?’ – ‘No, I did it in 1933’; or ‘What about including Moel Meirch?’ – ‘No, it’s not in the list (thank God for two odd feet!)”.

“It must be admitted that some two-thousands are dull.  Many of the Pennine tops are likely to satisfy only those who have acquired a taste for that type of country.  It is a taste worth cultivating, if only for the solitude.  To some two-thousands one would not wish to return.  But in this game, and it is only a game, one must take the rough with the smooth, the great with the small, and the obvious with the obscure. The Rhinogs nowhere reach 2,500 feet but they provide the roughest and toughest walking in Wales, and the rarely visited tops round the Hirnant Valley near Bala are a close second.  The two thousands are of that middle height from which the distant views look their best”.

Walsh had instigated the correspondence between himself and Moss of which Ted Moss states: “I am indebted to A. St. G. Walsh for drawing my attention to two of the additional tops in Wales.  He is a mine of information on two-thousands and has recently published an account of his researches”.  After this public thank you, Moss comments on Walsh’s article : “Unfortunately Walsh gives only a specimen list and does not indicate to what extent he depends on objective measurement or on subjective judgement in deciding whether the drop is more or less than 50 ft”.  This is the first of only two published comments made between the only people to have compiled a comprehensive list to the Welsh 2,000 ft mountains.

The first page to Ted's article in the 1952 Rucksack Club Journal; page 67

The last page to Ted's article in the 1952 Rucksack Club Journal; page 70

The update to Moss’s list appears on the last page of his article.  Nine new two-thousands are listed, two being in England with the remaining seven being in Wales.  The combined total of English and Welsh two-thousands now stood at 621, with Wales’s total being 244.  None of the seven new Welsh two-thousands had appeared in a hill list before.  Moss was correct when he described them as “mostly small”, as none are significant.

Perhaps because of this, Moss explains his and Simpson’s use of the single ring contour criterion:

Simpson’s and my own lists are all based on the 50 ft contour ring definition, which is admittedly arbitrary; but they include also a number of tops without a contour ring, tops which were included originally for sentimental, local or other reasons.  The collector who wishes to be arbitrary in a consistent manner will exclude these tops and reduce the number to 216 for the Lakes, 150 for the Rest of England, and 243 for Wales.  On the other hand there are a number of worthy tops over 2,000 ft with very distinct rises all round which nevertheless do not figure in the lists because their rises occur between adjacent 50 ft map contours.  Examples are Tewit How, Crag Hill, and Craig Ysgafn (all contours are missing on the map hereabouts).  The identification of all the ringless tops in and out of the lists is left to the initiative of the collector”.

Next instalment due on the 30^th September 2015

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The History of Welsh Hill Lists

The History of Welsh Hill Lists – Part 7

The Early Years

1911-1940

1940 – Ted Moss

Ted Moss was a Textile Research Chemist during his years of list compilation.  With his 1939 publication the English list was now complete.  Moss then turned his attention to Wales, the result appeared one year later in the 1940 edition of the Rucksack Club Journal.  Entitled The Two-Thousands of Wales, it consisted of five pages and proved to be the first published comprehensive list of the 2000 foot mountains of Wales.  Moss used the same criteria as his 1939, and Simpson’s 1937 English lists, that is, all tops of 2000 feet and over marked by a separate contour ring on the one-inch Ordnance Survey Popular Edition map.  In addition, a few tops not honoured with a separate contour ring but which had distinct rises were also included.  This followed Corbett’s single contour ring criterion of 1929 but with one important difference, Moss followed his own 1939 English list where he divided the mountains into major tops and minor tops.  Of the 237 mountains listed, thirty seven were identified by Moss as minor tops; these were represented in their respective group listing in italics and inlayed from the text margin to separate them within the text from the other 200 major tops.  By doing this Moss harkens back to Munro with his separate mountains and subsidiary tops.

Front cover of the 1940 edition of The Rucksack Club Journal

After a half page introduction the listing starts with the name of mountain group and number of tops within each group, the latter being in brackets, followed by the mountain’s name, height and O.S. reference.  In all seventeen groups are listed, of which the Carnedd Group with twenty nine tops appears first, eight are listed as minor tops.  Making their first appearance in any published hill list are Carnedd y Ddelw, Drosgl, the northern top of Creigiau Gleision and Craiglwyn which is listed as Creigiau Gleision Point S (ii).  Next is the Glyder Group which comprises fourteen mountains, four of which are minor tops.  The Snowdon Group follows with the first list appearance of Foel Gron, Llechog and Gallt y Wenallt, Moss lists all ten tops as major.  Eleven mountains make up the Nantlle Group, of which one is listed as a minor top; Y Garn is listed for the first time.  The Festiniog Group comprises eleven major and three minor tops with new appearances in published form by Ysgawell Wen, its southern top which is listed as Ysgawell Wen Point S, Moel Penamnen, Graig-ddu and Manod Mawr which Moss lists as Clogwyn Candryll.  The first group that Moss opens up is the Arenig Group which he lists as having twenty five tops, only two points in this group had ever appeared in a published list before, one being Arenig Fawr, Moss’s group consists of fourteen major tops and eleven minor, entering a published hill list for the first time are Foel Goch, Carnedd y Filiast, Waun Garnedd y Filiast which Moss lists as Carnedd y Filiast Point N.E., Carnedd Llechwedd Llyfn is listed as Gylchedd, Arenig Fach, a top to the south of Arennig Fawr which is listed as Arenig Fawr Far S. top Point S (i), Moel Llyfnant, Gallt y Daren, Foel Boeth, Dduallt and Rhobell Fawr.  The third page of the article continues with the Rhinog Group comprising eight major and three minor tops, none of which had ever appeared in a published list.  Twenty five tops make up the Berwyn Group, of the sixteen major tops and nine minor tops the following mountains are all new published listings:  Moel Fferna, Cefn Dylif which Moss lists as Blaen Llynor Point N, Tomle, the southern top of Foel Wen which is listed as Foel Wen Point S.E., Mynydd Tarw, Godor, its northern top named Godor Point N.W. and finally Post Gwyn.  The ninth group is the most extensive with nineteen major tops and ten minor tops making up the Aran Group.  Only four of the twenty nine tops had ever been listed in a publication, all of the heather bound Hirnant hills were making their first appearance in a published list, other newcomers include Foel Rhudd, Llechwedd Du named Craig Ty-nant by Moss, Foel Hafod Fynydd listed as Craig Cwm-du, Pen yr Allt Uchaf listed by Moss as Drysgol Point S., Gwaun y Llwyni named Camddwr in the list and lastly Waun Camddwr which Moss lists as Camddwr Point W(ii).  The list continues with nine major tops in the Cader Idris Group, Gau Graig, Tyrau Mawr named Craig Las by Moss and Craig y Llyn all make their first entrance into a published hill list.  The Corris Group consists of what are sometimes referred to nowadays as the Dyfi Hills and Tarrens, Moss lists five major tops and three minor ones, none had entered a hill list publication before.  Moss’s next listing was to the Plynlimon Group, nine tops in all with just one listed as minor, none had appeared in a comprehensive published hill list.  The thirteenth group comprised the wilds of central Wales with both Drygarn Fawr and Gorllwyn receiving their first ever published listing.  Another four listings made up the Radnor Forest Group.  Moss now lists South Wales with thirteen tops within the Fforest Fawr Group; only one point is listed as a minor top and only one point, Fan Brycheiniog which Moss lists as Carmarthen Van had ever appeared in a hill list publication before.  The penultimate listing is to the Brecon Group which comprises eleven major and one minor top, appearing in published format for the first time are Y Gyrn, Fan y Big which is listed as Craig Cwm-oergwm, Craig Gwrelyg listed as Craig Cwareli and the hill often listed as Cefn yr Ystrad which Moss lists as Unnamed Top.  The last group comprises eleven major tops in the Black Mountains, except for Waun Fach and Pen y Gadair Fawr, none had ever been represented in a published hill list.

Double page spread from Ted Moss' 1940 list to The Two-Thousands of Wales

Nothing like this had ever appeared before.  No subsequent Welsh 2000 foot hill list compares with Moss’s comprehensive listing of so many new tops.  Huge tracts of land were opened up, the Rhinogydd group being an example, the mountain range extends for almost twenty miles from Barmouth in the South to the Afon Dwyryd / Vale of Ffestiniog in the North, not a paved road is crossed and it makes up one of the longest and toughest mountain range traverses anywhere in Wales, yet before Moss, no comprehensive published listing of these mountains existed.  No other Welsh 2000 foot hill list can compare in quantity to Moss’s 237 tops, but Moss’s chosen criterion means that many tops are rather inconsequential when found on the ground.  Moss rather humorously sums up the problem when he passes comment on the two Craig Berwyn tops:  “Of which it can only be said that they are not hollows.  Has anyone succeeded in locating both these elusive tops?”

Even though many peaks would disappear from future compilations, Ted Moss’s 1940’s list proved to be the first listing of the 2000 foot mountains of Wales to be published.

After completing Simpson’s list on the 2^nd May 1947, Ted Moss became the first known person to complete his list of the 237 Welsh Two-Thousands, when on the 10^th August 1950, his notes of the day record, he completed a six hour, ten mile walk incorporating 4000 feet of ascent over eight hills within the Fforest Fawr group.

Ted Moss on Kinder Scout.  Photo: Frank Solari

Ted Moss later completed his 1939 list and thus became the first person to finish the 612 combined 2000 foot mountains of England and Wales (614 when the totals of the two countries are combined, but because of the position of the border as it crosses the Black Mountains, Moss purposely included two mountains in each list), when on the 22^nd July 1951 he completed six hills within the Swaledale and Mickle Fell groups, although, as with his Fforest Fawr walk of the previous year, his notes of the day do not confirm his 612th and last mountain.  The mountains visited are known but not in what order, the firm candidate for this honour, though, is Bink Moss.  Wouldn’t it be more than appropriate if this was so?

Ted Moss’s 1940 publication ‘The Two-Thousands of Wales’ is a fitting culmination to the end of the first part of the history of Welsh hill lists.  Already three important designated minimum height criteria had been used and a 100 foot minimum re-ascent value had been attempted.  Yet, what published list compilers had not attempted, but were working toward, was a minimum re-ascent value of 50 feet.  That is, until our next author and publication.  But this is another ten years away, and will be dealt with in the next part of The History of Welsh Hill Lists.

Next installment due on the 30^th March 2015

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The History of Welsh Hill Lists

The History of Welsh Hill Lists – Part 6

The Early Years
1911-1940

1933 – Ted Moss

Corbett’s updated list ushered in the 1930’s.  These years saw the least amount of Welsh hill list publication in any decade from 1911 to the present day.  The only list concerning Wales to be published was another update to Corbett’s Twenty-Fives.  This was published in 1933 in the Rucksack Club Journal, and entitled Some New Twenty-Fives.

It comprised two pages, of which the first page is introductory as well as listing the latest updates; these consist of ten additional Twenty-Fives, of which six are in Wales.  Of particular note is the first ever listing of the southern top of Arennig Fawr which was listed as Arenig Fawr Far South top.  The remaining page gives brief details on the six new Welsh tops.  There were now 158 Twenty-Fives with sixty four of them in Wales.

The first page of the two page update to the Twenty-Fives

This now brought to a conclusion the updates to John Rooke Corbett’s original 1911 list, the author of this latest update we’ll meet later, in 1939/40, but first our story takes us into England, where between the years 1933-1939 three lists were produced, with the latter two paving the way for the first comprehensive published listing to the 2000 foot mountains of Wales.  The first of the three was compiled by the Rev. W. T. Elmslie, entitled ‘The Two Thousand Footers of England’, comprising 347 mountains and published in 1933 by the Journal of the Fell and Rock Climbing Club of the English Lake District.  Following this in 1937 was the Wayfarer’s Journal’s publication of F. H. F. Simpson’s ‘Concerning Contours’, comprising the 225 English Lake District 2000 foot tops.  Two years later the Rucksack Club Journal published ‘The Two Thousands of England (excluding the Lake District)’, this listed 152 tops and complemented Simpson’s 1937 list.  When combined the two lists produced a mammoth total of 377 English 2000 foot tops.  The author of the 1939 list and the Twenty-Fives update of 1933 was Edward (Ted) Moss.

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The History of Welsh Hill Lists

The History of Welsh Hill Lists – Part 5

The Early Years

1911-1940

1929 – John Rooke Corbett

With the completion throughout England and Wales of the Popular Edition of the One-Inch Ordnance map, John Rooke Corbett updated his original 1911 list, and thus in 1929 the Rucksack Club Journal published an eight page article, again entitled Twenty-Fives.  This revised Corbett’s first list and included 148 English and Welsh 2500 foot tops, fifty eight of which are in Wales.  Similar in format to his 1911 publication:

The first page comprises an introduction with the last three pages relating to Wales.  The Welsh list is split into six groups with a brief description of each followed by the mountain’s name and height, in all three mountains are deleted from the 1911 list, whilst ten mountains are added. 

Front cover of the 1929 Rucksack Club Journal

Of particular interest is the addition of Cader Berwyn, S. Top which was mapped at 2650 + feet, it would be almost sixty years before this particular mountain was recognised by published list compilers and the Ordnance Survey alike as being the highest point of the Berwyn, eventually receiving the designated map height of an 830 metre ring contour (2723 feet), and eighty five years since this hills first appearance in a list before its accurate height of 832.0m was obtained by using a Trimble GeoXH 6000.  Corbett’s criterion for inclusion depended upon each top being indicated by a separate contour ring, but also retained were a few others, whose summits Corbett remembered as distinct tops.  By using this criterion Corbett is open to including certain tops that have less re-ascent, than other tops, which are omitted.  But by compiling this list from map details with contour intervals of 50 feet, Corbett had taken the first step toward this prescribed height being used as the designated minimum re-ascent criterion for many a future list compiler.

Next installment due on the 30^th November 2014

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The History of Welsh Hill Lists

The History of Welsh Hill Lists – Part 2

The Early Years

1911-1940

1912 – John Rooke Corbett

Only a year after the ‘Twenty-Fives’ had been published an update to the list appeared.  During the intervening year members of the Rucksack Club had scrutinised maps of the time and come across seven omissions from the original list.  Five of these are in England, including the infamous Pillar Rock and The Knowe on Harter Fell, which was believed to be the only twenty-five Mr Minor had not been up.

Although input had been received from a number of club members the update was assigned to John Rooke Corbett with his initials J.R.C. appearing at the end of the article.  The update to the ‘Twenty-Fives’ appeared on page 166 in the 1912 publication of the Rucksack Club Journal Vol II, No. 2 and is entitled ‘Excursions’.

After an introductory paragraph with the lead heading of Twenty-Fives, the mountains are listed.  These are indented from the text of the article and only appear in name, with no height given.  Some have a brief explanation to their whereabouts.  Of the seven listed only two are in Wales, these are Cader Berwyn, on the Berwyn Ridge; and Pen-y-Nantllyn, between Gader Fawr and Waun Fach.  Corbett explains that there is a case for the inclusion of Gallt-y-Gogof, which the Ordnance Surveyors had given a height of 2,499 feet above sea level.  He explains that the mountain could be thought of as being 2,500 feet high at low tide as unsatisfactory, as it is always low tide at some point on the coast of Britain and high tide at some other point.  Other thoughts are also expressed as it was countered this peak should be included if any person more than two feet high was to stand on its summit, then the greater part of their anatomy had attained the required altitude.  The conclusion being that the peak might be counted as a Twenty-Five if when standing on the top, the person should leap at least one foot into the air.

The 1912 one page update to John Rooke Corbett's 'Twenty-Fives'

The 1912 article set a precedent that many a hill list author over subsequent years would follow, as it is the first update to a hill list that ever appeared, it would not be the last to the list known as the ‘Twenty-Fives’, but for that we will have to wait another seventeen years.  After Corbett’s 1912 update to his original list fourteen years were to pass before the next list appeared.

Next installment due on the 30^th May 2014

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The History of Welsh Hill Lists

The History of Welsh Hill Lists – Part 1

The Early Years

1911-1940

1911 - John Rooke Corbett

No history of the hill lists of Wales would be complete without due reverence to Sir Hugh Munro, who in 1891 published his first Tables of the 3000 foot mountains of Scotland.  These consisted of 283 separate mountains with a further 255 subsidiary tops.  Except for the minimum height criterion the list was arbitrary in nature and blazed a trail for all hill lists that followed.  Sir Hugh never quite completed his 538 tops; he was working on a revision of his Tables when he died in 1919 with only three tops remaining to visit.

Subsequent years saw the Rev. Archibald Eneas Robertson become the first person to complete Sir Hugh’s 283 ‘Munros’, when on the 28^th September 1901 he reached the top of Meall Dearg on the Aonach Eagach.  The Rev. A.R.A. Burn in 1923 not only repeated the Munros but also completed the subsidiary tops.  In 1929 J.A.Parker became the third person to complete the Munros.  Our Welsh story now properly starts with John Rooke Corbett, Munroist number four.

John Rooke Corbett was a district valuer based in Bristol.  He completed the Munros and tops in 1930, only the second person to do so.  As well as this, Corbett compiled a list of 219 Scottish mountains, between the heights of 2500 feet and 2999 feet, and subsequently climbed them all.  His listing of ‘Corbetts’ had no specific written criterion for defining a mountain, the Scottish Mountaineering Club (SMC) who the list was bequeathed to, analysed it and decided that each mountain had to have a minimum re-ascent of 500 feet on all sides.  However, subsequent detailed analysis of maps of the time by Robin N Campbell implies that Corbett was using ten separate ring contours to denote one hill from another.  The metric equivalent of the 500 feet criterion would form the basis of a much later and important list publication.  With Corbett’s listing and later publication the minimum height criterion used in a Scottish hill list had been reduced from one of 3000 feet to one of 2500 feet.  But Corbett had already used this minimum height criterion in a published list in the 1911 Rucksack Club Journal and thus the first published systematic listing of Welsh hills starts.

The Rucksack club was formed in October 1902 and its journal started in 1907.  Published on an annual basis, its 1911 edition had a five page article entitled ‘Twenty-Fives’.  These Twenty-Fives were the 131 mountains above 2500 feet that Corbett had noted in England and Wales.

After an introductory page the listing starts with a brief description of each group, followed by the mountain’s name, and in most, but not all cases, its height.  The last two pages relate to Wales with the Berwyn as the first group listed comprising Cader Fronwen and Moel Sych.  The next grouping, to the North of Ogwen Lake, consists of fourteen peaks.  Eleven mountains make up the third grouping, between the Ogwen and Llanberis passes.  Snowdon follows with four listed summits, whilst further West is the solitary peak of Moel Hebog.  The Moelwyn make up the next group with Moel Siabod and Moelwyn listed.  The following group ranges over an area that includes Arenig Fawr, Aran Mawddwy and Cader Idris; Cowarch is noted in this group as the only one that cannot be reached in an easy day from either Llanuwchllyn or Dolgelly.  Corbett’s last group is to the great ridge of old red sandstone that separates Brecknockshire from Glamorgan and comprises nine summits.  In all, 51 Welsh mountains are listed.  Corbett ends with a remark concerning Plynlimmon, which he states: “Has been described by writers who should know better as the third highest mountain in Wales, [this] only reaches 2,468 feet above sea level”.

With this article Corbett had set the precedent that many a subsequent list compiler would follow by incorporating the hills of England and Wales in one publication.  It also seems that the accepted spelling of hill names has altered in the years between this list’s publication and the writing of this article.  Corbett’s reasoning for producing the list was based upon the peak-bagging exploits of the then president of the Rucksack Club, Philip S. Minor.  Corbett goes on to explain that: “Minor was the first to take up the idea of ascending every mountaintop in England and Wales over 2500 feet”.  Because of this, members of the Rucksack Club scrutinised reputable maps of the time, such as Bartholomew’s or the one-inch Ordnance map, and if any point was above the 2500 foot contour line and was marked, it went on the list.  This of course was only done as Minor was approaching the completion of his task, so he could at least do it properly.  Although the exact date is unknown, Philip S. Minor became the first person to complete the Twenty-Fives when he finished Corbett’s list in 1911 or 1912.

An excerpt from the introduction to John Rooke Corbett's 'Twenty-Fives'

Although Corbett’s Twenty-Fives is accepted as the first systematic listing of Welsh hills to be published, it certainly wasn’t the first published listing.  During the Victorian age, hills with their respective heights were sometimes divided into groups and occasionally appeared in published format.  Harry Longuville Jones’s ‘Illustrations of the natural scenery of the Snowdonian mountains, accompanied by a description, topographical and historical of the county of Caernarvon’ is but one example.  Charles Tilt of London and Thomas Stevenson of Cambridge published this in 1829.  It included hills, with their heights, arranged in six divisions of mountains.  But detailed listings with a set criterion for defining a mountain only arrived in Wales with John Rooke Corbett’s 1911 publication.  It was only a year later when after thorough and exhaustive examination of the map of England and Wales, that an update to the ‘Twenty Fives’ appeared.

Next installment due on the 30^th March 2014

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The History of Welsh Hill Lists - Preface

 

The following text is an analysis of the evolutionary process of the early years of the Welsh hill list.  From its first systematic use in the early 20^th century to the early 1960’s when one man had a vision decades ahead of its time.  As with most hill lists ground rules are used, mine are:

Within the following pages a peak over 2000 feet in height is usually described as a mountain, and one under this height as a hill, occasionally this does alter, but only when I consider the reading of the text necessitates it.  A 'peak' or 'top' can refer to either a mountain or hill.

Over time some accepted spellings for mountains and place names have changed.  Whilst using quotations and listings of hills I have adhered to the original spellings within each respective list and have put these in italics.  Hopefully no confusion will arise from doing this.

To differentiate between the text that deals with the background to each list and the text that deals with the detailed description of the list itself, the latter has been indented within the text. 

When each list is introduced its date of publication, or compilation for unpublished listings, author and title are highlighted in bold.

Although lists of hills to various individual ranges do exist, the smallest region this article deals with is either Northern or Southern Snowdonia.    The one category this article does not detail  is listings to the County Tops.

The research conducted for this article has been greatly enhanced by help given by a number of people.  I would like to express my thanks to; Richard Moss, Dewi Jones, Bill Owens, the late George Bintley, David Matthews, Dr H.J.B. Day, Brian Turner (The Wayferers’ Club),  Ros Harding (The King's School, Chester), Geof Milburn, David Purchase and Jeff Parr.


Next installment due on the 30^th January 2014 

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