Pole Hill
| Pole Hill | |
| Essex | |
|---|---|
| |
| Summit: | 300 feet TQ385949 51°38’11"N, 0°0’5"W |
Pole Hill is a hill of 300 feet in Chingford, Essex. From its summit there is an extensive view over to London and its conurbation overspreading Essex and Middlesex, although in the summer the leaves of the trees in Epping Forest have a tendency to mask some of the view to the north and west.
Name
The earliest recording of the name is as "Pouls Fee" or "Pauls Fee" in 1498. It is shown as Hawke Hill on the Chapman and André map of 1777. Hawke derives from the nearby Hawkwood. (The latter's name in turn comes from the Old English halh, for a nook, cranny or corner: this it means wood at the corner of the parish of Chingford).
The hill was named 'Paul' because it was in the manor of Chingford Pauli, also known as Chingford St Paul's, which belonged to St Paul's Cathedral in London. 'Fee' is from the Middle English fe which means a landed estate indicating it formed part of the manor. After the erection of the Greenwich Meridian obelisk mentioned below, it appears to have acquired the cognomen of Polar Hill, but this soon dropped out of use.[1]
Astronomical history
The hill stands in Epping Forest at 0 degrees longitude, and 51 degrees 38 minutes north latitude. It is noted for the fact that it lies directly on the Greenwich Meridian and, being the highest point on that bearing directly visible from Greenwich, was at one time used as a marker by geographers at the observatory there to set their telescopes and observation equipment to a true zero degree bearing.[2] At its highest point it is 300 feet above sea level, just off the Meridian line.
On the summit of the hill is an obelisk made of granite and bearing the following inscription:[3]
This pillar was erected in 1824 under the direction of the Reverend John Pond, MA, Astronomer Royal. It was placed on the Greenwich Meridian and its purpose was to indicate the direction of true north from the transit telescope of the Royal Observatory. The Greenwich Meridian as changed in 1850 and adopted by international agreement in 1884 as the line of zero longitude passes 19 feet to the east of this pillar.
At that point (19 feet east) there is an Ordnance Survey trig point placed here to mark the top of the hill.
References
- ↑ Some Chingford Field Names by A.J. Britton – Chingford Historical Society Bulletin No. 7 July 1970
- ↑ A History of the County of Essex - Volume 5 pp 97-114: The parish and borough of Chingford (Victoria County History)
- ↑ Megalithic Portal: Pole Hill