Hill 60

martyn142 · Hill 60

We've just got back from a few days in Bruges - what a fantastic city. While we were there we spent a day visiting sites from WW1. We went to Tyne Cot cemetery which was very moving. 12,000 Commonwealth troops are buried there, which is near Passchendaele.

We also visited the In Flanders Field museum in Ypres and while there I noticed reference to Hill 60. This was an area on the Ypres Salient which was blown to pieces by the British after having been captured by the Germans.

Anyway, I'm not sure if anyone else refers to it as Hill 60, but when I was growing up in Cwmtillery, that was the name we gave to the steep hill leading from the top of the horsehoe-bend aboves the reservoir to Blaentillery farm. Assuming anyone else calls it by the same name, does anyone know why? I think the original in Belgium was so-called because of it's height, but that obviously wouldn't apply to the Cwmtillery version.

admin

Spooky Martyn!

I led a Communties First walk up into the Cwmtillery Lakes area yesterday and mentioned Hill 60, which as you say we used to call that uphill stretch, and asked if anyone knew why it was called that. I do remember when I was young that someone said because the track was at 60 degrees, though I didn't/don't believe that. A few weeks back though I was told that it was due to the American forces during WWII using the area for training and that it was the area marked on a grid reference - I have no confirmation of that, but perhaps there is indeed a military connection.

Tonyfromafar · Hill 60

The original Hill 60 in Belgium was not a natural feature. It was created by the spoil of the ground dug out to created a railway line used to resupply the front. Its strategic importance was created by the height of the hill and from the top it is possible to see the town of Ypres from its plato at the apex. Consequently it became a point of strategic importance during the 1st and 2nd World Wars and its occupation changed hands on numourous occasions. As a recognition of this importance, following WW I a memorial was erected after the war but was destroyed by the german army in WW II,then the memorial was subsequently rebuilt post WW II. The area is a mass War grave for both British and Germans. So why was the area in Cwmtillery called Hill 60.

The area may have been created by the miners of Cwmtillery Colliery as spoil from the colliery, it was therefore man made like the Hill 60 in Belguim. If we acknowledge the fact that Abertillery's prosperity in the Collierys was built on the influx of families from Somerset, amoungst other places, then there could be help with the explanation. Mining was a major factor in the operations conducted during WWI. Regiments were created puerly to dig under the feet of the enemy, explosives placed, then the charges set off to blow the enemy to kingdom come. Therefore it would be fair to suggest that perhaps the Hill 60 of Cwmtillery could have been named by those who returned from the Belgian front as it reminded them of the original hill.
As a serviceman of 31 years I am aware of another Hill 60 that exists on a ExRAF base in Germany and that too was man made to create a military vantage point so maybe there is a pattern emerging here?

martyn142

Hi Tony. Nice to hear from you.

Your theory hinges on that part of the mountainside being formed from mining waste and I'm not sure that is the case. I think the road is built into the natural hillside. On the other hand returning troops might well have just christened it Hill 60 just because it was the name of hill they had grown to know all too well.

But since we don't have any other competing theories at the moment I guess yours must be the most plausible we have! Very Happy

Adam ev

This hill is a natural hill and not colliery waste from Cwmtillery pit, it is not 60 degrees as the name suggests, but no one quite seems to know where the mane came from, perhaps Derek jones from Blaentillery farm wiil know? this road goes to his farm.

Carolyn

Hi Adam Ev, welcome to the forum. Are you relation to any of the Ev's at Gelli Grug Question

Tonyfromafar · Hill 60

I was chatting with an army friend a few weeks ago and the conversation came around to visits to France, war graves etc and I brought up the subject of the military naming of hills using numbers. Hill 60 being a popular one.

It turns out that the hills named on the continent as a result of military operations during WW I and II were allocated these names as a result of their elevation. I have no idea whether this is measured in feet or metres above Mean Sea Level (MSL) or some other parameter, also I'm not sure if that theory fits the description of the hill that we have chatting about in this thread, as my local knowledge after leaving Abertillery to join the RAF ages ago, is a bit hazy? Would this theory work?

Answers on a postcard to.....

Ian

You wouldn't by any chance be a Tony from Oak St and around the big five O
age wise?

Tonyfromafar · Hill 60

I would.

Carolyn

Hi Tony I thought it might be you too Laughing

Ian

I was talking to a friend of mine today who is in his 70's and was brought up in Cwmtillery,he says that sometime in the 1950's there was a plan to build a road over the top of the mountain.The surveyors who were called in designated certain areas with names and that is where hill 60 got it's name from.