14.07.21 Pen Aran Hill (SO 137 888)
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| Pen Aran Hill (SO 137 888) |
This was my third hill of the morning and having
left a high narrow lane where I had parked for the ascent of Bryn Pant y Drain
(SO 178 885), I drove down to the A489 road and the small community of Kerry,
where I then headed south and found the minor road that took me up to my next
hill of the day, which having made subsequent place-name enquiries is being
listed as Pen Aran Hill.
As with many smaller heighted hills, the upper
part of Pen Aran Hill is no more than a relatively high field, albeit a field
that gives an extended view. Prior to
visiting I had examined this hill via LIDAR and found two tops separated by 1mm
in height, each placed at or beside a perimeter hedge and fence. I planned on visiting the two tops and survey
each.
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| LIDAR image of Pen Aran Hill (SO 137 888) |
I parked close to a gate giving access to the
high field, with another gate directly opposite already open. I later found that Philip Davies was in the
opposite field cutting grass for silage.
Philip is the local farmer and confirmed the field name for where the
summit of this hill is situated as the Long Field and the field where he was
working as the Big Field, and he knows the hill as Pen Aran Hill. The Pen Aran part of this name is a composition
taken from the Ordnance Survey series of Six-Inch maps, with the composition on
contemporary Ordnance Survey maps being Penarron.
Philip had also cut grass in the Long Field and
as I accessed it through a gate, great swathes extended across the upper hill
in lines leading to its high point. It
was only a short distance to the first southerly LIDAR summit. I stopped and quickly assessed the lay of land
before continuing to the farther northerly LIDAR summit. It is the latter that many people recognise
as the high point of this hill. On my way
I came to an intermediary top, again I stopped and looked back and tried to
assess its height relative to the other two summits. It seemed that three surveys were necessary
to attempt to split these tops.
Continuing to the farther northerly top I used
the Trimble as a hand-held GPS unit to zero in to the ten figure grid reference
produced by LIDAR. This point of the
hill has a hedge signifying the field boundary.
The Trimble was soon set up and within a few minutes it was activated to
gather data.
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| Gathering data at the northerly top of Pen Aran Hill |
During data collection I stood below the
equipment and spotted a tractor in the opposing field, this was Philip who I
later visited. Once data were gathered
and stored I headed back to the intermediary top and again set the Trimble up
and collected a second data set. This
top is beside a fence and gives extensive views.
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| Gathering data at the central top of Pen Aran Hill |
It was only a short distance from here back to
the most southerly of the three tops, which like the northerly is beside a
mature hedge. The Trimble was soon set
in place gathering its third data set from this hill.
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| Gathering data at the southerly top of Pen Aran Hill |
The hedge gave way a little lower to a perimeter
fence and during data collection I stood and looked out toward what would be my
fifth and six hills of the day, each like this one were positioned beside a
narrow road leading across their upper ridge.
These two hills are now listed by the same name; Top Field, with the
name of the higher of the two positioned at SO 114 890 found from local enquiry
and the lower which is positioned at SO 110 879 found from the Tithe map.
As the Trimble gathered data this proved a
lovely place to stand and have the world pass me by. Compared to earlier in the morning cloud had
now built up with the sun casting light and shade with shadows moving across
hillsides adding depth to perspective. I
was in no particular rush, but did want to visit Penarron farm which is
positioned just below the upper field. I
hoped I could find the local farmer and confirm an appropriate name for this
hill and therefore once the Trimble had gathered allotted data I closed it
down, packed it away and made my way through the swathes of cut grass back to
my car.
I was soon parked at the entrance to Penarron
farm and walking in to the back yard, where Ivor and Rhydian Powell were encouraging
three cows in to a trailer. I
volunteered my help and tapped one on its hind quarters, they were soon all
safely in, more from the expertise of the two people I had just met rather than
from the encouragement that I had given.
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| Ivor and Rhydian Powell |
I explained my interest in the hill and its
name, and Ivor and then Rhydian told me that the adjacent and slightly lower
field is known as the Pike and that the upper field where I had been surveying
is known as the Long Field. We spent a
number of minutes talking about the hill but they needed to get away with the
three cows, before doing so they told me the person who I should go and talk to
was Phil who was in the field cutting silage and who had farmed these hills all
his adult life.
Therefore I drove back up the road, parked in
the pull-in spot where I had left my car to visit the hill and went through the
opposing open gate and down the field where Phil was in his tractor cutting
great swathes of grass. I waited for him
to head my way and waved over, he soon stopped and we chatted for ten minutes
of so. Phil told me the names of the two
opposing fields, the Pike and the Long Field and the Big Field for where we now
were. I asked him about the name of the
hill and he said he knows it as Pen Aran Hill.
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| Philip Davies |
Before leaving I asked if I could take some
photographs and he kindly got out of his tractor and stood in the sun beside
it. I thanked him for his time and waved
my goodbyes and walked back up the field to the open gate.
The day was progressing well with three hills
visited and surveyed and one new hill name and three field names documented. The fourth hill of the day; Cold Weston (SO
141 907); a name given on the Tithe map, required driving back in to Kerry and
then a mile or so north-west before heading up the access track to Weston farm
where I hoped to find the local farmer to ask permission to park and visit the
summit, and hopefully confirm the name of the hill.
Survey Result:
Pen Aran Hill (significant name change)
Summit Height: 368.0m (converted to OSGM15, Trimble GeoXH
6000)
Summit Grid Reference: SO 13710 88852 (Trimble GeoXH 6000) (summit relocation confirmed)
Bwlch Height: 324.6m (LIDAR)
Bwlch Grid Reference: SO 13561 88411 (LIDAR)
Drop: 43.4m (Trimble GeoXH 6000 summit and LIDAR
bwlch)
Dominance: 11.79% (Trimble GeoXH 6000 summit and LIDAR
bwlch)
For further details please consult the Trimble Survey Spreadsheet
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