The County Tops of England and Wales form another late-70s winding-down project, alongside the Simms.
Though a unit of British geography and administration for many centuries, they have in recent times been mucked about with. Boundaries get tweaked to better reflect, it is thought, the human geography of the time, and whole new units of local government administration sweep away the very concept of the ‘county’ in favour of the ‘unitary authority’.
The year 1965 was something of a watershed. The creation of the Greater London Council swept away Middlesex, and Essex, Hertfordshire, Kent and Surrey all saw their metropolitan areas removed. So I am both Essex-born and a Londoner. Further, later reforms even conjured new ‘counties’ such as Avon and Tyne & Wear, though they were not to stand the test of time.
So for the walker, climbing the county tops first needs a definition. But the only unchanging (more or less) definition is that of the historic counties, almost – not entirely – unchanged from early modern times to the later twentieth century. It is that which is used here.
Over the years I’ve climbed many of the county tops, and by definition, thanks to climbing all the Hewitts, all the highest ones. It has to be said that some of the tops are merely fields, and a few lack even that distinction; but decent little walks can be conjured for many. Over the next few years, I’ll be finding out.