Mapping Mountains – Significant Name Changes – The Fours - The 400m Hills of England

The Warren (SO 318 685)

There has been a Significant Name Change that is retrospective to a hill that is listed in the The Fours – The 400m Hills of England, with the summit height, col height and their locations, the drop and status of the hill derived from a Trimble GeoXH 6000 survey conducted by Myrddyn Phillips.

The Warren (SO 318 685)

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

The Fours– The 400m Hills of England.  English hills at or above 400m and below 500m in height that have 30m minimum drop, accompanying the main listing of The Fours are three categories of sub hills, with this hill being included in the 400m Sub-Four category, the criteria for which are all English hills at or above 400m and below 500m in height that have 20m or more and below 30m of drop.  The list is co-authored by Myrddyn Phillips and Aled Williams and the 2^nd edition of the booklet containing this list was published by Mapping Mountains Publications on the 24^th April 2018.

The Fours - The 400m Hills of England by Myrddyn Phillips and Aled Williams

The hill is adjoined to the Beacon Hill group of hills, which are situated in the county of Shropshire close to the Welsh border, and it is positioned encircled by minor roads, with the A4113 road farther to its north and the B4355 road farther to its west, and has the small community of Norton towards the south-west and the town of Trefyclo (Knighton) towards the north-west.

When the listing that is now known as The Fours – The 400m Hills of England was originally compiled this hill was not included as it did not meet the criteria then used for the accompanying sub list.  When this list was subsequently uploaded to the RHB Yahoo group file database and data augmented from Clem Clements it appeared under the name of; Stonewall Hill (The Warren). 

Hill list authors are prone to list a hill by the name that appears nearest to its summit on contemporary Ordnance Survey maps, without much consideration for its local or historical confirmation, or whether map placement is appropriate, and in the case of this hill there are two names that are consistently applied near to its summit on different scaled Ordnance Survey maps, these are Stonewall Hill and The Warren.

Extract from the Ordnance Survey 1:25,000 Explorer map

Since the original publication of this list there have been a number of maps made available online.  Some of these are historic such as the series of Six-Inch maps on the National Library of Scotland website.  Whilst others were digitally updated such as the Ordnance Survey Vector Map Local that was hosted on the Geograph website and which was entitled the Interactive Coverage Map, whilst others are current and digitally updated such as the interactive mapping on the Magic Maps and WalkLakes websites.  One of the historic maps now available online is the Ordnance Survey One-Inch ‘Old Series’ map, and it is this map that formed the basis for the change in the listed name of this hill.

The One-Inch ‘Old Series’ map was the first map that Ordnance Survey produced, and their publication culminated from the whole of Britain being surveyed between 1791 and 1874 and the detail gathered therein produced at a scale of one inch to the mile and published in sheet format between 1805 and 1874.  The One-Inch ‘Old Series’ maps for the whole of England are now available online; they are also available in map format as enlarged and re-projected versions to match the scale and dimensions of the Ordnance Survey 1:50,000 Landranger series and are published by Cassini.  This series of maps form another important part in the study of upland place-names and bridge the timeframe leading up to the production of the Ordnance Survey base map of the Six-Inch series, and importantly for this hill and its listed name, it is this map that places the name of The Warren across the summit area of this hill.

Extract from the Ordnance Survey One-Inch 'Old Series' 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 these two countries.

The enclosed land where the summit of a hill is situated is usually given a number 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.  However, in this instance the land where the summit of this hill is situated is named as The Warren, with the land boundary between it and Stonewall Hill being the narrow road to the west of the summit which also forms a part of the designated border between England and Wales.  This information appears on the Tithe map for the counties of Hereford and Radnor and in the parish of Presteigne.

Extract from the Tithe map

Therefore, the name this hill is listed by in The Fours - The 400m Hills of England is The Warren and this was derived from the series of different scaled Ordnance Survey maps and substantiated by the Tithe map. 

The full details for the hill are:

Group:  Beacon Hill

Name:  The Warren

Previously Listed Name:  Stonewall Hill (The Warren)

  

OS 1:50,000 map:  137, 148

Summit Height:  403.8m (converted to OSGM15)

Summit Grid Reference:  SO 31855 68590

  

Col Height:  376.4m (converted to OSGM15)

Col Grid Reference:  SO 31273 70279

Drop:  27.45m

Myrddyn Phillips and Aled Williams (March 2018)

  

Mapping Mountains – Trimble Surveys – Beacon Hill

15.02.18  The Warren (SO 318 685)

The Warren (SO 318 685)

The Warren is listed as a 400m Sub-Four and straddles the border between England and Wales with its summit in England and its col in Wales.  I was running a tight schedule as I had already visited and surveyed the col of Worcestershire Beacon and the summit of Wapley Hill and wanted to de-twin the two 417m map heighted summits of Farrington Bank after this survey, and needed to get to Newtown for 6.00pm for a meal and the cinema, so although this hill can be combined in a more satisfying way with adjacent hills, I opted for a quick there and back from the convenience of the high narrow lane to the west of its summit.

As I left my car and straddled the wired fence giving access to the closely cropped grazing field where the summit of The Warren is situated, the wind whipped across the land with a chilled feeling, I hoped a quick walk to the hill’s high point would at least build a little inner warmth!

The summit was easy to identify and within a few minutes I’d set the Trimble up on the ground secured in place by three small flat rocks.  As it beeped away gathering the allotted five minutes of data I wandered down the upper part of the hill to take photos looking south toward Wapley Hill.

Gathering data at the summit of The Warren (SO 318 685)

Further north-east the sky was a sleet driven grey with huge shower clouds massing and depositing snow flurries on the higher ground, however The Warren remained bathed in sunshine, albeit very chilly.

To the north-west the observatory on top of one of the two 417m map heighted summits of Farrington Bank stood out against its near forestry and adjacent twin topped summit, these were my next surveying objective. 

Once the Trimble had collected its data I scampered back to my car and its relative warmth and drove toward the observatory, and after surveying the two 417m summits of Farrington Bank I drove the short distance back on the narrow lane to the area of the col of The Warren.

I’d recently looked at levelled heights on the series of Ordnance Survey Six-Inch maps on the area of this hill’s col whilst updating my part of the forthcoming The Fours publication, and had travelled the narrow road in a Google car and had also looked at the lay of land as I passed over the col whilst driving between The Warren and Farrington Bank, my conclusion was that the hill to hill traverse met at or close to the road junction beside a narrow conifer plantation.  However, to be sure I needed to investigate the lay of land on foot.

I parked at the start of a track leading to Upper Barn and walked the short distance back on the narrow lane to the area of the col, I looked at this col for a number of minutes following each hill to hill traverse to where they theoretically met, and then how this point developed in relation to the valley to valley traverse and concluded as I had before; the critical col is placed at the T-junction of narrow lanes.

As what I deemed to be the position of the critical col had mature conifer trees to its immediate south, and a telegraph pole, fence, gate and stunted trees beside it I retrieved my car and parked it on what I judged to be the col and aligned the Trimble with it whilst placed on the car roof, this gave it a 1.44m elevation above the col and a greater chance of picking up signals from orbiting satellites.  Thankfully the 0.1m accuracy level before data should be logged was quickly attained as a massive lump of grey murk was rolling down the valley slowly engulfing the town of Knighton, and I wanted to finish my day’s surveying in the dry.

The Trimble placed on top of my car's roof gathering data at the critical col of The Warren

Once five minutes of data were stored I closed the Trimble down, packed it away and drove back to the confines of the track leading to Upper Barn where I changed out of my hill gear, as I turned the key in the ignition the first drops of rain started to fall, and by the time I had driven down the narrow lane in to Knighton the streets were awash and the daylight had turned an exceedingly murky grey.  I arrived in Newtown at 6.00pm and made it to the pub to meet Eryl and John a couple of minutes later.

Survey Result:

The Warren (significant name change)

Summit Height:  403.8m (converted to OSGM15)

Summit Grid Reference:  SO 31855 68590

Col Height:  376.4m (converted to OSGM15)

Col Grid Reference:  SO 31273 70279

Drop:  27.45m

Dominance:  6.80%

For further details please consult the Trimble Survey Spreadsheet