Change Register – The Fours - The 400m Hills of England

Change Register

The Fours – The 400m Hills of England

The Fours are the English hills at or above 400m and below 500m in height that have a minimum drop of 30m.  The list’s initial compilation was completed in November 2002 and entitled The 400m Peaks of England and was first published on 19^th December 2002 on the RHB Yahoo Group file database along with the equivalent Welsh and Manx hills, with the file entitled the 400m hills of England, Isle of Man and Wales, this file was uploaded by Rob Woodall who later augmented data from Clem Clements into the database.

When the listing of The 400m Peaks of England was published on the RHB Yahoo Group file database it was during a time when the limits of listing P30 hills was being pushed ever downward beyond the 500m barrier, there were two main instigators behind this burst of listing activity; Clem Clements concentrating on 300m – 500m Scottish, English and Welsh hills and Myrddyn Phillips concentrating on 30m – 500m Welsh hills and 400m – 500m English hills.

The master hand written list was maintained by Myrddyn Phillips with the original publication on the RHB Yahoo Group file database later being duplicated en masse by Mark Jackson without prior consultation with, or even notification to the author, with these data forming the equivalent part of the Tumps and with this act resulting in years of undue data divergence that is ongoing.

It wasn’t until the interest shown by Mark Trengove for this list to be published by Europeaklist that it was next fully re-evaluated, and leading up to this publication occasional updates to the list were posted to the RHB Yahoo Group forum.  The subsequent Europeaklist publication on 15^th December 2013 was entitled The Fours and led the way to the list becoming co-authored with Aled Williams.  The listing of The Fours was later published on 6^th January 2014 by Phil Newby on his Haroldstreet website, and all future updates to the list have been catalogued on the Mapping Mountains site.

Although the criteria has remained the same the list has changed greatly since its first publication and now has an accompanying comprehensive and standardised Sub list, and benefits from accurate numerical data produced by independent surveyors and the analysis of LIDAR data, as well as the meticulous research conducted by Aled Williams enhancing the place-name data.  The listing is also gaining in popularity as there are now two known completers of The Fours with another 38 people having completed 100 or more of these hills.

It seems fitting that the list of The Fours – The 400m Hills of England should now benefit from a detailed Change Register, and although the updates to this list have been catalogued since its first inception in 2002, it is prudent for this Change Register to initially detail the major changes to the list leading up to the December 2013 publication by Europeaklist.

The Change Register to The Fours – The 400m Hills of England appears below with the reclassifications to the main P30 list being detailed chronologically in receding order.

Change Register

The Fours – The 400m Hills of England

Thwaite Scars    407.1m at SD 76287 70892 

LIDAR image of Thwaite Scars (SD 762 708)

The reclassification of this hill to 400m Sub-Four status was announced on Mapping Mountains with a retrospective Hill Reclassifications post published on the 28.04.23.  The hill was previously listed as a Four with 30m of drop, based on the 408m summit spot height that appears on the Ordnance Survey 1:25,000 Explorer map and the 378m col spot height that appeared on the Ordnance Survey Vector Map Local hosted on the Geograph website and which was entitled the Interactive Coverage Map.  Its reclassification is due to LIDAR analysis conducted by Myrddyn Phillips, resulting in a 407.1m summit height and a 377.7m col height, with these values giving this hill 29.4m of drop.  Four total decreases by one and confirmed as 298.

Cold Stones    421.2m at SE 12584 63663 

LIDAR image of Cold Stones (SE 125 636)

The reclassification of this hill to Four status was announced on Mapping Mountains with a retrospective Hill Reclassifications post published on the 23.11.22.  The hill was previously listed as a 400m Sub-Four with an estimated c 26m of drop, based on an estimated c 417m summit height and a 391m col height, the latter based on the spot height that appeared on the Ordnance Survey Vector Map Local hosted on the Geograph website and which was entitled the Interactive Coverage Map.  Its inclusion as a Four is due to LIDAR analysis conducted by Myrddyn Phillips, resulting in a 421.2m summit height and a 390.8m col height, with these values giving this hill 30.4m of drop.  Four total increases by one and confirmed as 299.

Pt. 414.7m    414.7m at SK 10999 67962 

LIDAR image of Pt. 414.7m (SK 109 679)

The reclassification of this hill to 400m Sub-Four status was announced on Mapping Mountains with a retrospective Hill Reclassifications post published on the 15.10.22.  The hill was previously listed as a Four with an estimated c 30m of drop, based on the 414m spot height that appears on the Ordnance Survey 1:25,000 Explorer map and an estimated c 384m col height, based on interpolation of 5m contouring between 380m – 385m.  Its reclassification is due to Joe Nuttall who produced a summit analysis programme using LIDAR, and then by LIDAR analysis initially conducted by Jim Bloomer and subsequently by Myrddyn Phillips, resulting in a 414.7m summit height and a 385.5m col height, with these values giving this hill 29.2m of drop.  Four total decreases by one and confirmed as 298.

Dow Low    430.1m at SK 09419 68071 

LIDAR image of Dow Low (SK 094 680)

The reclassification of this hill to Four status was announced on Mapping Mountains with a retrospective Hill Reclassifications post published on the 29.09.22.  The hill was previously listed as a 400m Sub-Four with an estimated c 29m of drop, based on an estimated c 426m summit height and an estimated c 397m col height, with both heights based on interpolation of 5m contouring that appeared on the OS Maps website.  Its inclusion as a Four is due to LIDAR analysis conducted by Myrddyn Phillips, resulting in a 430.1m summit height and a 396.3m col height, with these values giving this hill 33.8m of drop.  Four total increases by one and confirmed as 299.

 

Peat Law    472.0m at NT 90610 10125 & NT 90607 10132

LIDAR image of Peat Law (NT 906 101)

The reclassification of this hill from 400m Sub-Four to Four status was announced on Mapping Mountains with a retrospective Hill Reclassifications post published on the 26.08.22.  The hill was previously listed with an estimated c 29m of drop, based on the 472m summit spot height that appears on the Ordnance Survey 1:50,000 Landranger and 1:25,000 Explorer map, and an estimated c 443m col height based on interpolation of 10m contouring between 440m – 450m.  Its reclassification to Four status is due to Joe Nuttall who produced a summit analysis programme using LIDAR, and then by LIDAR analysis initially conducted by Jim Bloomer and subsequently by Myrddyn Phillips, resulting in a 472.0m summit height and a 441.7m col height, with these values giving this hill 30.4m of drop.  Four total increases by one and confirmed as 298.

Dryhope Hill    486.4m at NT 92877 11671 

LIDAR image of Dryhope Hill (NT 928 116)

The reclassification of this hill from 400m Sub-Four to Four status was announced on Mapping Mountains with a retrospective Hill Reclassifications post published on the 22.08.22.  The hill was previously listed with 29m of drop, based on the 486m summit spot height that appears on the Ordnance Survey 1:50,000 Landranger and 1:25,000 Explorer map, and the 457m col spot height that appeared on the Ordnance Survey Vector Map Local hosted on the Geograph website and which was entitled the Interactive Coverage Map.  Its reclassification to Four status is due to Joe Nuttall who produced a summit analysis programme using LIDAR, and then by LIDAR analysis initially conducted by Jim Bloomer and subsequently by Myrddyn Phillips, resulting in a 486.4m summit height and a 456.2m col height, with these values giving this hill 30.2m of drop.  Four total increases by one and confirmed as 297.

 

Knott    465.8m at NY 71422 01291 

LIDAR image of Knott (NY 714 012)

The Hill Reclassifications post announcing the change of status of this hill from a Four to a 400m Sub-Four was published on Mapping Mountains on the 03.03.22.  The hill was previously listed with an estimated c 31m of drop based on the 1,522.8ft (464.2m) surface height on the Ordnance Survey series of Six-Inch maps and an estimated c 433m col height based on a comparison between Ordnance Survey 1:25,000 Explorer map and Harvey 1:25,000 Superwalker map col contours.  Its reclassification to 400m Sub-Four status was prompted by Joe Nuttall who produced a summit analysis programme using LIDAR, and then by LIDAR analysis conducted by Aled Williams and subsequently Myrddyn Phillips, resulting in a 465.8m summit height and a 437.1m col height, with these values giving this hill 28.7m of drop.  Four total decreases by one and confirmed as 296.

Eldon Hill    470.6m at SK 11561 81143 

LIDAR image of Eldon Hill (SK 115 811)

The reclassification of this hill from 400m Sub-Four to Four status was announced on Mapping Mountains with a Hill Reclassifications post published on the 28.02.22.  The hill was previously listed with an estimated c 28m of drop based on the 470m summit spot height that appears on the Ordnance Survey 1:50,000 Landranger and 1:25,000 Explorer map and an estimated c 442m col height based on interpolation of 10m contouring between 440m – 450m.  Its reclassification to Four status is due to Joe Nuttall who produced a summit analysis programme using LIDAR, and then by LIDAR analysis initially conducted by Jim Bloomer and subsequently by Aled Williams, resulting in a 470.7m summit height and a 440.1m col height, with these values giving this hill 30.6m of drop.  Four total increases by one and confirmed as 297.

24^th April 2018 – Haroldstreet publishes The Fours. 

Four total confirmed as 296.

24^th April 2018 – Mapping Mountains Publications publishes The Fours. 

Four total confirmed as 296.

Wansfell Pike    484.3m at NY 39415 04170

LIDAR image of Wansfell Pike (NY 394 041)

The reclassification of this hill to Four status was announced when the 2^nd edition of The Fours - The 400m Hills of England was published by Mapping Mountains Publications on the 24.04.18, with a Hill Reclassifications post appearing on Mapping Mountains on the 09.07.18.  The hill was previously listed as a 400m Sub-Four with an estimated c 26m of drop, based on an estimated c 483m summit height ascertained from an optical survey taken from the summit area of Baystones (486.9m at NY 40312 05143) which concluded that Wansfell Pike is at least 4m lower, and an estimated c 457m col height based on 10m contouring between 450m – 460m that appear on the Ordnance Survey 1:25,000 Explorer map.  The reclassification of this hill is due to the analysis of data on the OS Maps website, coupled with information in the OS Trig Database and LIDAR summit analysis.  One of the resources recently available online is the mapping on the OS Maps website, this is the replacement for OS Get-a-map and until recent times had contours at 5m intervals which were proving consistently more accurate compared to the 5m contours that sometimes appear on the Ordnance Survey 1:25,000 Explorer map and used to appear on the online Vector Map Local.  This mapping had col contouring between 450m – 455m, with interpolation placing the height of the col as an estimated c 453 - c 454.  The OS Trig Database records the position of a buried block at the summit of this hill with a height of 483.717m, with initial LIDAR summit analysis giving a height of 483.7m, and when coupled with the estimated col height these values gave this hill an estimated c 30m of drop.  With the reclassification subsequently confirmed by a Leica GS15 survey conducted by John Barnard, Jim Bloomer and Graham Jackson and analysis of full LIDAR coverage conducted by Myrddyn Phillips, resulting in a 484.3m summit height and a 453.5m col height, with these values giving this hill 30.8m of drop.  Four total increases by one and confirmed as 296.

Pt. 465.1m    465.1m at NT 83019 14191

Pt. 465.1m (NT 830 141). Photo: Rob Woodall

The reclassification of this hill to Four status was announced when the 2^nd edition of The Fours was published by Mapping Mountains Publications on the 24.04.18, with a Hill Reclassifications post appearing on Mapping Mountains on the 22.06.18.  The hill was previously listed as a 400m Sub-Four with an estimated c 28m of drop based on the 465m summit spot height that appears on the Ordnance Survey 1:25,000 Explorer map and an estimated c 437m col height, based on interpolation of 10m contouring between 430m – 440m.  The initial reclassification of this hill is due to analysis of data on the OS Maps website, which is the recent replacement for OS Get-a-map, with confirmation from subsequent LIDAR analysis conducted by Myrddyn Phillips.  The mapping on the OS Maps website has 5m contour intervals resulting in this hill being listed with an estimated c 32m of drop based on the 465m summit spot height and an estimated c 433m col height.  The confirmation of this reclassification is due to LIDAR analysis, resulting in a 465.1m summit height and a 433.1m col height, with these values giving this hill 32.1m of drop, which is sufficient for it to be classified to Four status.  Four total increases by one and confirmed as 295.

Black Hill    468.2m at SD 86565 66233

LIDAR image of Black Hill (SD 865 662)

The reclassification of this hill to 400m Sub-Four status was announced when the 2^nd edition of The Fours - The 400m Hills of England was published by Mapping Mountains Publications on the 24.04.18, with a Hill Reclassification post appearing on Mapping Mountains on the 18.05.18.  The hill was previously listed with an estimated c 30m of drop, based on the 468m summit spot height that appears on the Ordnance Survey 1:50,000 Landranger and 1:25,000 Explorer map and an estimated c 438m col height, based on interpolation of 10m contouring between 430m - 440m.  Its reclassification is due to LIDAR analysis initially conducted by Aled Williams and subsequently by Myrddyn Phillips resulting in a 468.2m summit height and a 440.0m col height, with these values giving this hill 28.2m of drop, which is insufficient for it to retain its Four status.  Four total decreases by one and confirmed as 294.

Green Hill    419.7m at NY 85366 53385

LIDAR image of Green Hill (NY 853 533)

The reclassification of this hill from 400m Sub-Four to Four status was announced when the 2^nd edition of The Fours - The 400m Hills of England was published by Mapping Mountains Publications on the 24.04.18, with a Hill Reclassifications post appearing on the Mapping Mountains site on the 15.05.18.  The hill was previously listed with 28m of drop based on the 419m summit spot height that appears on the Ordnance Survey 1:50,000 Landranger map and the 391m col spot height that appears on the Ordnance Survey 1:25,000 Explorer map.  Its reclassification is due to LIDAR analysis conducted by Aled Williams, resulting in a 419.7m summit height and a 389.7m col height, with these values giving this hill 30.0m of drop which is sufficient for it to be classified as a Four.  Four total increases by one and confirmed as 295.

Reilth Top    404.6m at SO 28458 88105

Reilth Top (SO 284 881)

The reclassification of this hill to 400m Sub-Four status was announced on the Mapping Mountains site on 25.04.17, with the Hill Reclassifications post published on Mapping Mountains on the 27.04.17.  The hill had previously been listed as a Four with an estimated c 30m of drop, based on an estimated c 406m summit height with uppermost ring contouring of 405m on the contemporary Ordnance Survey 1:25,000 Explorer map and an estimated c 376m col height, based on interpolation of 5m contouring between 375m – 380m.  Its reclassification is due to a Trimble GeoXH 6000 survey conducted by Myrddyn Phillips on the 25.03.17 and confirmation via subsequent LIDAR analysis conducted by Aled Williams, resulting in a 404.6m summit height and a 375.4m col height, with these values giving this hill 29.2m of drop.  Four total decreases by one and confirmed as 294.

The Cold Piece    399.5m at SO 33849 99695

The Cold Piece was the first hill to be reclassified to a 390m Sub-Four after The Fours booklet was published by Europeaklist 

This is the first hill reclassified from a Four to a 390m Sub-Four through surveying with a GNSS receiver and the Hill Reclassification post was published on Mapping Mountains on the 07.11.14.  Its previous status as a Four was reliant upon a small 400m summit ring contour that appears on the contemporary Ordnance Survey 1:50,000 Landranger and 1:25,000 Explorer map, but its continuing status in the main 400m list was always under threat as the only absolute height found for this hill was the 1311ft (399.6m) height on the Ordnance Survey 1:10,560 map.  The hill was subsequently surveyed on the 05.11.14 by Myrddyn Phillips with the Trimble GeoXH 6000 resulting in a 399.5m summit height.  Four total decreases by one and confirmed as 295.

6^th January 2014 – Haroldstreet publishes The Fours. 

Four total confirmed as 296.

15^th December 2013 – Europeaklist publishes The Fours. 

Four total confirmed as 296.

Caer Caradoc    402.7m at SO 30903 75743

The summit of Caer Caradoc

The addition of this hill to Four status was announced on the RHB Yahoo Group forum on the 27.09.13.  Its qualification was based on the 1321.4ft (402.76m) levelled height that appears on the Ordnance Survey 1:2,500 map, which matches the rounded up 403m spot height on the old Ordnance Survey 1:50,000 Landranger map.  This height is taken to the earthen ramparts of an ancient Iron Age Hill Fort, and is in contrast to the 399m spot height that is shown on the contemporary Ordnance Survey 1:50,000 Landranger and 1:25,000 Explorer map that appears in the lower central part of the structure.  The hill was subsequently surveyed by Myrddyn Phillips on 14.11.14 using the Trimble GeoXH 6000 resulting in a height of 402.7m.  Four total increases by one and confirmed as 296.

Upper Edge    436m at SK 07626 68451

An inclusion in the Sub list when The 400m Peaks of England was first compiled and it was subsequently reclassified to the main P30 list with c 30m of drop by Rob Woodall who augmented data supplied by Clem Clements.  The details for this hill were re-interpolated and as a result it was re-instated as a 400m Sub-Four based on its 436m summit spot height and a 416m col spot height, with the latter appearing on the Ordnance Survey enlarged mapping hosted on the Geograph website, these values give this hill only 20m of drop which is the minimum qualifying drop value for inclusion as a 400m Sub-Four.  The area of this hill’s col has been extensively quarried and therefore the natural col may no longer exist.  The reclassification of this hill back in to the ranks of 400m Sub-Fours was accepted on 20.09.13 when Region 36 was completed during the preparation of the list for Europeaklist publication.  Four total decreases by one and confirmed as 295.

Pt. 407m    407m at SK 05484 68101

This hill was originally listed as Brand End in the Sub list that accompanied The 400m Peaks of England and was only reclassified to the main P30 list with c 33m of drop by Rob Woodall who augmented data supplied by Clem Clements.  The details for this hill were re-interpolated and as a result it was re-instated as a 400m Sub-Four based on its 407m summit spot height on the Ordnance Survey enlarged mapping hosted on the Geograph website and an estimated col height of c 378m based on col contouring between 375m – 380m, these values give this hill c 29m of drop.  The reclassification of this hill back in to the ranks of 400m Sub-Fours was accepted on 20.09.13 when Region 36 was completed during the preparation of the list for Europeaklist publication.  Four total decreases by one and confirmed as 296.

Pt. 411m    411m at SD 95366 64856

This hill was originally listed as Malham Moor in the Sub list that accompanied The 400m Peaks of England and was only reclassified to the main P30 list with c 30m of drop by Rob Woodall who augmented data supplied by Clem Clements.  Re-interpolation of map detail resulted in this hill’s re-instatement as a 400m Sub-Four based on its 411m summit spot height and an estimated drop of c 29m based on a col height of c 382m.  The reclassification of this hill back in to the ranks of 400m Sub-Fours was accepted on 08.08.13 when Region 35B was completed during the preparation of the list for Europeaklist publication.  Four total decreases by one and confirmed as 297.

Catterick    426.2m at NY 99442 35942

LIDAR image of Catterick (NY 994 359)

This hill was originally listed in the Sub list that accompanied the main listing of the The 400m Peaks of England.  It was only included in the main P30 list with an estimated c 30m of drop by Rob Woodall who augmented data supplied by Clem Clements in to the list.  This hill was re-instated to the 400m Sub-Four category after comparing photos of the summit area in relation to the height given the flush bracket on the triangulation pillar, levelled heights on the summit and the area of the col on Ordnance Survey 1:2,500 maps and repeated journeys on the road passing over the col in a Google Car via Google maps, this extensive research resulted in the hill being listed with 29m of drop.  The reclassification of this hill to 400m Sub-Four status was accepted on 04.08.13 when Region 35A was completed during the preparation of the list for Europeaklist publication.  Subsequent LIDAR analysis conducted by Myrddyn Phillips confirms this hill as a 400m Sub-Four with a 426.2m summit height and a 396.4m col height, with these values giving this hill 29.9m of drop.  Four total decreases by one and confirmed as 298.

Knott    464m at NY 71426 01288

THIS HILL HAS SUBSEQUENTLY BEEN RECLASSIFIED TO 400m SUB-FOUR STATUS

This hill was originally listed in the Sub list that accompanied The 400m Peaks of England and was reclassified to the main P30 list as a Four with an estimated c 31m of drop based on a combination of Ordnance Survey (430m – 440m) and Harvey Maps (420m – 435m) col contouring, this information suggests that the col is between 430m – 435m high with an estimated c 433m col height.  The reclassification of this hill to a Four was announced on the RHB Yahoo Group forum on 03.08.13.  Four total increases by one and confirmed as 299.

Brown Rigg    463m at NY 30524 14605

When The 400m Peaks of England was originally compiled this hill was listed in the Sub list and was only reclassified to the main P30 list with c 30m of drop by Rob Woodall who augmented data supplied by Clem Clements.  This hill was re-instated to the 400m Sub-Four category using data from Harvey Maps as well as that from Ordnance Survey maps, with the summit being given a 463m spot height and the height of the col estimated as c 436m, giving this hill only c 27m of drop.  The col height for this hill is estimated from the comparison of col contours on the Ordnance Survey map (430m – 440m) and the Harvey Map (435m – 450m), based on these contours the height of the col is between 435m – 440m and is estimated as being c 436m high.  The reclassification of this hill back to 400m Sub-Four status was accepted on 09.07.13 when Region 34B was completed during the preparation of the list for Europeaklist publication.  Four total decreases by one and confirmed as 298.

Dryhope Hill    486m at NT 92877 11671

THIS HILL HAS SUBSEQUENTLY BEEN RECLASSIFIED TO FOUR STATUS

This hill was originally listed in the Sub list that accompanied The 400m Peaks of England and was subsequently reclassified to the main P30 list with an estimated c 31m of drop when Rob Woodall augmented data supplied by Clem Clements.  However, with a 486m summit spot height and a 457m col spot height, with the latter appearing on the Ordnance Survey enlarged mapping hosted on the Geograph website, these values give this hill 29m of drop and its re-instatement to the ranks of 400m Sub-Fours was accepted on the 07.07.13 when Region 33 was completed during the preparation of the list for Europeaklist publication.  Four total decreases by one and confirmed as 299.

5^th July 2013 – started re-appraisal of data for forthcoming Europeaklist publication of The Fours. 

Four total confirmed as 300.

Myrddyn Phillips and Aled Williams (February 2017)