Peak District Trig Point Restored

It's good news for trig points with the news that the damaged triangulation pillar on top of Brown Knoll between Edale and Hayfield in the Peak District has been repaired thanks to the landowner, the Ordnance Survey, volunteers and National Park Rangers.

Click here to see the exact location of the point, which had been knocked over and damaged. It was originally built on on 30 April 1940 for use in mapping the area, but the advent of high tech mapping techniques mean that trig points are no longer required for survey purposes.

The OS has looked at what to do with redundant trig points and decided on a new policy of retaining ones that are 'useful locally as navigational markers'. The Brown Knoll point falls into that category sitting at an altitude of 569 metres in a moorland area above Edale Cross.

The repairs weren't exactly straightforward. Ian Hurst, the National Park Authority's Area Ranger, said:

"It was quite a challenge to restore the trig pillar because of the remoteness of the site and the weather throughout the weekend was very cold, damp and misty with visibility down to 30 metres.

"At times like that you realise how important a marker is to people navigating through an otherwise featureless landscape. The trig pillar now sits on a base of concrete three metres deep so it should last at least another 60 years!"

The team used two all terrain vehicles (ATVs), designed to carry loads over fragile moorland vegetation without damaging it, to transport concrete, mixer and tools over 2.5 kilometres across the moorland.