Sunday 16 October 2016

Mapping Mountains – Significant Name Changes – 200m Twmpau


Garreg Mountain (SJ 133 782)

There has been a Significant Name Change to a hill that is listed in the 200m Twmpau, and the following details are in respect of a hill that was surveyed with the Trimble GeoXH 6000 on the 23rd January 2016.

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

200m Twmpau - All Welsh hills at and above 200m and below 300m in height that have 30m minimum drop, with the word Twmpau being an acronym standing for thirty welsh metre prominences and upward.

The hill is a part of the Bryniau Clwyd range, which is an extensive group of hills situated in the north-eastern part of north Wales, and it is positioned between the small communities of Trelogan and Berthengam to the north-west, Chwitffordd (Whitford) to the east and Gorsedd to the south-east.

The Trimble GeoXH 6000 gathering data at the summit of Garreg Mountain

The hill appeared in the 200m P30 list on Geoff Crowder’s v-g.me website under the partly invented name Pen Coed y Garreg, with an accompanying note stating; Name from wood at the summit.  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 PenBryn or Moel in front of them or as in this instance, use the name of the wood at the summit of the hill and prefix it with the word Pen.  This is not a practice that I now advocate as with research either conducted locally or historically an appropriate name for the hill can usually be found.    


Pen Coed y Garreg
    248m
    SJ133783
    116
  265
    Name from wood at the summit
   

Since publication of these P30 lists on Geoff Crowder’s v-g.me website there have been a number of Ordnance Survey maps made available online, some of these are historical such as the series of Six-Inch maps on the National Library of Scotland website, whilst others are current and digitally updated such as the enlarged map hosted on the Geograph website.  Two of the historical maps now available are the Ordnance Survey Draft Surveyors map which formed the basis for the Ordnance Survey One-Inch ‘Old Series’ map, and it was these maps that name the hill as Garreg Mountain.

Extract from the Ordnance Survey Draft Surveyors map

Extract from the Ordnance Survey One-Inch 'Old Series' map

The Draft Surveyors maps consist of the preliminary drawings made by the Ordnance Survey’s surveyors between the 1780s and 1840 and formed the basis for the first publicly available One-Inch map.  They were drawn at scales of six inches to the mile for areas considered of particular military significance and down to two inches to the mile for other areas.  Fair copies were then produced from these preliminary drawings to one inch to the mile and then copper plates were prepared for printing.  The Draft Surveyors maps for the whole of Wales are now available online and they form an important part in the study of Welsh upland place-names as they bridge the time frame between the late 18th century and the mid-19th century when the Ordnance Survey produced their first One-Inch maps. 

The One-Inch ‘Old Series’ was the first map that Ordnance Survey published, and  they were based on the preceding Draft Surveyors map.  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 Wales 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 forms another important part in the study of Welsh upland place-names and bridge the time frame leading to the production of the Ordnance Survey base map of the Six-Inch series.

Therefore the name this hill is now listed by in the 200m Twmpau is Garreg Mountain, and this was derived from the Ordnance Survey Draft Surveyors map and the Ordnance Survey One-Inch ‘Old Series’ map.  This mapping became publicly available after the original P30 lists were published on Geoff Crowder’s v-g.me website.



The full details for the hill are:

Group:  Bryniau Clwyd

Name:  Garreg Mountain

Previously Listed Name:  Pen Coed y Garreg 

Summit Height:  247.1m (converted to OSGM15)

OS 1:50,000 map:  116

Summit Grid Reference:  SJ 13361 78264 

Drop:  c 53m





Myrddyn Phillips (October 2016)




No comments: