Roseberry Topping
There are more than 6500 of these pillars located throughout Great Britain - often in pretty inaccessible places. They were mostly erected in the 1930's and were vital to the process of accurate surveying. The iconic trig pillar was designed by Brigadier Martin Hotine in 1935. Hotine designed them to assist with triangulation - separating our country into a network of triangles, allowing precise mapping of the landscape.
Burbage Moor
In modern times, better surveying techniques have been developed - to such a point that the little pillars are now redundant. However, they still dot the country and appear in "Ordnance Survey" mapping. They are often a focus or indeed a diversion for walkers. People will frequently pause by them to lean and look around.
Bagging trig points is a passion for some country lovers and there are even websites devoted to this hobby. Every pillar has its own unique reference information usually shown on a metal flush bracket secured to the base of the trig point.
Birchen Edge
Over the years, I have visited dozens of triangulation pillars - not because I am a crazy trig point enthusiast but just because they happened to be on or close to my walking route. Some pillars sit in very prominent positions while others are hidden away in hedgerows.
Accompanying this blogpost, I have picked five of my images of triangulation pillars to share with you.
Mam Tor
Stanage Edge
I have never heard of these trig points before, but they are kind of interesting to see, and that last one is eerie as heck!
ReplyDeleteSorry to have scared you with the last one Bob!
DeleteThe one at Mam Tor is the best looking one.
ReplyDeleteMam Tor is nine miles from this keyboard. The name means "shivering mountain".
DeleteAs with most things, survey technology has changed. Machines take measurements!
ReplyDeleteAnd satellites and drones.
DeleteI wonder what made "them" choose triangles for mapping. Grids of squares seem to make more sense, but then I don't really know enough about such things to offer even an educated guess.
ReplyDeleteIf people come across these markers in 10,000 years, what will they think? Maybe scientists will come up will all sorts of theories as to the meaning of those stones.
On the top there is usually a three-channelled bronze inlay connected with the use of theodolites. Like you, I don't know very much about surveying techniques. Have you ever come across a trig point when walking near Ripon?
DeleteI don't think so, although it is likely that I have done - maybe never noticed it.
DeleteFor reasons I do not understand, I can only see two trig points close to Ripon. The one to the south west is in a thicket which is in the middle of a field. However, the one to the north east is by a public footpath east of Sharow and about 400 metres north of High Barn.
DeleteTriangulation - measurements of distance and direction from two known positions can fix the position of the third point - you can't do that with squares.
DeleteI have walked to Sharow but probably was not on its eastern side, since I was on a circuit taking me back to Ripon, and I don't think I have ever been near High Barn.
DeleteThank you for the explanation, Tigger's Mum.
I like Mam Tor better than the plain ones.
ReplyDeleteI don't know why the trig point builders went for a more scenic, "natural" option with Mam Tor.
DeleteThat was what I was wondering. Why was it made of different materials?
DeleteWe loved taking our girls to find them, when we were out and about in Somerset, the views are often stunning.
ReplyDeleteIt's strange when you find them hidden in hedgerows. You expect them to be in prominent positions.
DeleteThey are very evocative those photos, they must bring back happy memories of walking.
ReplyDeleteI suppose they are ugly, concrete intruders but I like them and I like the solitude that they have come to represent.
DeleteOur mobile phones have GPS on them these days.
ReplyDeleteThat's a good example of how technology has advanced surveying techniques.
DeleteWe have some trig points too. I only know of two but I am sure there are more. I really like the Mam Tor trig point. Triangulation sounds painful, perhaps fatal.
DeleteAnd please keep them, and have people who know how to use them. GPS could be disabled.
ReplyDeleteThey have transmogrified. Once they were utilitarian structures but now they are mysterious and recurring features of our landscape - there perhaps to save us. Oh dear, I feel a poem coming on.
DeleteInteresting. In the U.S., the initial surveyors left behind "brass head" markers. They are about 4 inches in diameter and inset into concrete or if available, local stone and serve the same point as your triangulation pillars. Whenever I see that I'm near one, I like to search for it and have found quite a few though these days, not many of them are left. Like your pillars, they are now largely redundant and though it is against the law to tamper with them, many have been taken as souvenirs.
ReplyDeleteYes. I had heard that America had such a system. I guess that there are some crazy Americans who seek them out but you of course are not crazy!
DeleteHuh! I didn't know about this. I like the ones you have chosen to show us as they have terrific views, don't they?
ReplyDeleteIt is accidental that they are often located in lovely high-up places Ellen.
DeleteI used to climb up, stand on them, and have a photograph. If on my own I would set the camera to timer. I realised it was time to stop when I couldn't get up before the timer went off.
ReplyDeleteYou must have a few pictures of yourself trying to get up on them. Not something I ever did myself but I used to lift my children on to them.
DeleteThe first, fourth and fifth are in spectacular settings and would be well worth the climb for the view.
ReplyDeleteYou are right. As I say, they can create target points for ramblers.
DeleteThese are all beautiful photos, even though the pillars in themselves can hardly be called that... Mam Tor seems to have been made to fit in better with its surrounding landscape, though!
ReplyDeleteYes - the Mam Tor one is most unusual Monica.
DeleteThey are quite dramatic, especially set on a lonely ridge or hilltop. I think there was a "Star Trek" episode that featured a mystical structure looking a bit like them.
ReplyDeleteI know you have seen a few Steve but in your blog you appear to have only mentioned the one you came across in Fryent Country Park in 2019.
DeleteWhat an interesting and informative post! I feel better about wasting time on the internet when I learn things.
ReplyDeleteWe can all learn something new every day Kelly. Thanks for calling by again.
DeleteI hadn't realised that trig points only dated from the 1930s, I had assumed that they were much older as the Ordnance Survey had been in progress for sometime by then. What did they use for setting baselines etc before?
ReplyDeletePerhaps they put their theodolites on portable tripods and this may have indicated the need for better and more solid accuracy.
DeleteSo very cool. I geek out on things like this!
ReplyDeleteBeware! Curiosity killed the cat!
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