County Top No 4: High Holborn, City of London. 19-02-2024 22m.
Walk technicality * (GPS needed to find the actual point)
View *
Company n/a (left the family in Forbidden Planet for ten minutes)
Overall 1/10
Seriously, 22m.
This is the lowest county top, High Holborn in the City of London. (but what about Parliament Hill? Yes, it's higher, but it's not the City ) After a lovely afternoon at the Young V&A looking at the Myth to Manga exhibition, we tubed across to Tottenham Court Road, then popped up like a meerkat along High Holborn. Dropped off the family at Forbidden Planet, set the sat nag. The actual route, such as it is, is flat, urban and although there is some intresting archetecture, it's views are not great. The bench mark is obscured, and the actual highest point is a rather unassuming lump on the pavement. Such is life.Will find something else to make up for it, honest. At least it's done.
Old and newish.
Victoriana
My Old Dutch Pancake house, the highest point.
The best of the view.
Inspiring, yes?
From a comic shop, to the highest points.
Again, up in Shropshire, and with limited visiting hours at the amazing Royal Shrewsbury Hospital to see my dad, I was looking for a distraction. Steve, due to his own circumstances, was much the same. So, after a quick detour from Bishop's Castle to Bewdley, we hatched a plan of complete stupidity. Steve has his own challange, the 67 trig points of Worcestershire (yes, they are a thing, honest, oh gods, there's one for Shropshire, and Bedfordshire too), but he was willing to come back into the promised land of A.E.Houseman and go up Brown Clee Hill with me. I snuck a look at the back of his guide, and noted Church Hill, which is just outside Clows Top, was nearly kiiiiind of on the way, really only about five miles out, and so a double bag plan was hatched!
So, in reverse order...
County Top No 3: Brown Clee Hill. 04-02-2024 540m.
Walk technicality *** (+1 due to weather)
View ** (-3 due storm blowing in and 30' visibility, on a good day you can see 45 miles in all directions, should have been *****)
Company *****
Overall 9/10
Brown Clee. Highest point in Shropshire. Top on my 'to-do' list. This has been a bone of contention for me for years, I lived in Salop for twenty-something years, and had never, ever climbed it! Stupid I know, but not driving for a long time, then having kids, it was just never getting done.
Brown and Titterstone Clee is both massive, they arrives, unannounced, as you head west past Bewdley and Kidderminster, as you clear the Malvern and Client hills, and trumpet in no uncertain terms South Shropshire is hill country (we politely ignore the Shropshire Plain towards Ellesmere).
From the west and Bishop's Castle side, it nestles next to and slightly behind the brooding eminence of Titterstone Clee and so is bizarrely feels overshadowed by it's smaller neighbour, which has immense views along the Ludlow-Bedley-Kidderminster A-road. It is more inaccessable (mostly along B-roads), but due to radar and telcoms towers at the top, has a metalled track all the way up. You can combine the two in an 11 mile hike, but today we went for the circular version of Brown Clee only.
Ste had a handy guide, with a great circular walk he had done before, taking in the summit and a lump of the Shropshire Way. We parked up, got gear on, and set off.
Our track, which I assure you, you are seeing more of than we ever did!
Shortly after, we both became glad we had packed, as once we cleared the shelter of the plantation on the lower slopes, man the wind picked up!
Because most of the ascent is up the tarmaced path, you did not notice the pull up. Plus the wind took your mind off it!
Huts or remains of.
Abandoned mining facilities 
Lake on the ascent.
This should be the first view of the summit. Nah... 
The summit approach, you should be able to see three towers here.
The Trig point, buried in a step on a mound.
Bit of an awkward swim.
Benchmark, two steps higher than the trig, but not as high as the observation platform.
Steve trying to find the driest route off the hill! To be honest, you should be able to see about 45 bmiles from here, not 30 yards.
It was a tad wet and blowy!
"Climbed it, climbed it, want to..."
We did find some shelter for a brief moment.
Before what hair we had was nearly blown away.
It stung.
Clee Hills had an unfortunate habit of eating low flying planes during WW2, both RAF and Luftwaffe. This memorial commemorates the ones lost on Brown Clee
Lots of ancient woodlands, these and massive moss growths.
Pretty stream too.
Some views below the good clouds too.
There was actually a view once you dropped below the clouds.
A great walk, we will return when the weather improves.
Not a value: Church Hill, Clows Top, Worcestershire. 04-02-2024 230m.
Walk technicality *
View ***
Company *****
Overall 10/10
Our route, a layby next to an old phone box (now defibrillator), a wander up the road, a climbable gate, a very interesting trackway up to a disused quarry. Sheep. A barbed wire fence with one portion cut out so a middle aged man on a silly quest could climb over with a light straddle, and a trig point standing tall in a field. Someone of the avian variety obviously dines frequently on top, as there was a huge amount of dehydrated bird pooh.
It's still swimmable though! 
One man and his trig point! 
Looking down into the quarry.
Honestly, the view was incredible.
Superb view for a small hill.
Bench mark
Overall, a lovely half-hour walk and climb, and quite amazing views. To be honest, Church Hill was an absolute treasure to find, and completely quiet and beautiful. Would recommend it, it's short, but worth it. 600m of walking and 15m of climb. The quarry is obvious, and wooded all around, so no chance of plummeting in.
230m
It was so short, Strava hid 3/4 of the route! 230m, this would be higher than ten of the official country tops, including my first top of Arbury Hill in Northants!!
The aforementioned track feature and quarry. I wanted to know more! Why Church Hill, there are no churches nearby. Unless the quarry was used for an ecclesiastical building, maybe the natural amphitheatre had hosted services? I would love to know The track was certainly deeply defined, and looked well used in the past. The Trig point is top left, halfway between the corner and the quarry edge. But this gives you an idea of the scale of excavations.
15m of absolute pleasure to be honest! 
On the way back to Shrewsbury, it's not often you see one of these
Definitely not often you see one of these!
And really not often you see a £2 million pound water tower conversion either! Yes, I did stop the car to take this!
The view from my Dad's ward! The South Shropshire hills of my youth!
Not a value: Corndon Hill and Lan Fawr Powys.. 25-01-2024 314m-ish.
Walk technicality *** (+1 due to weather)
View *** (-1 due cloud base below the summit)
Company n/a
Overall 8/10
Due to being unavoidably detained in Shropshire while my Dad was recovering from an unexpected major operation, I needed things to do and occupy my over wrought mind. Thankfully, I had had the foresight to grab enough kit to walk on the hills, and it gave me a chance to pick off a hill that I had passed at least twice a week in my youth, but never been up.
Corndon lurks like a ruddy red tiger on the border, dominating the marches for at least ten miles in all directions. It's a hill that lurks in the background like a Neolithic tiger and broods ominously along the road between Shrewsbury and Bishop's Castle just over the border into Powys. Not often you get to play on an extinct volcano that produced highest quality stone axes that were transported to at least Kent and maybe the near continent.
The nearest settlement is the former lead mining hamlet of White Grit, named after the lead spoil. There is a decent nearby carpark for Mitchell's Fold Stone Circle and a good track that transects the two rises.
A side profile as I drove up.
2) Bardon Hill, Leicestershire 278m 26-10-2023
Walk technicality **
View *****
Company n/a
Overall 9/10
The last saturday as the clocks changed, in the gathering gloom of a post-wargaming day, in my new walking boots (Thanks Pin), just before the rain lashed it down, I decided to break my commute home to bag my second top and my first solo.
Conveiently close to the M1, on the way home from Boards and Swords, lies Leicestershire's highest point, the extinct volcano and granite outcrop that is Bardon Hill at 278m.
It nestles next to Coleville, with a rather attractive housing estate right next to a well marked path, which quickly moves into lovely mixed woodland and soon steeply rises.
A testament to the mining and quarrying history of the area are various carved way markers on the quarry side of the path. When I say quarry, I am used to a pre-industrial scrape in the ground, usually a small scar in a hillside, not an active granite super extraction! It's a bit impressive!
For a hill of 278m, it was rather pleasing to have done 278 feet of ascent. The track is literally up, turn round, back down, but for an evening stomp, it was perfect.
A great walk, and because of the views and location, probably one I would do again.
Mi Raisan de eater!
For the last few decades, after seeing a book in a long defunct gear shop in St Albans, I have thought about doing the 'County Tops'. These are the highest points in England and Wales. As there are 48 in England of them, I decided to do them between my 50th (last Tuesday), and my 54th in 2027.
48 - yup, there are 48 on the Wikipedia page. Many different guides have different numbers, but since I was born in 1973, I will do the county tops extant since then.
I have climbed some many times (Dunstable Downs), some a few (Scafell Pike) and some I have lived under but never done (Clee Hills). Annoyingly, I have done an awful lot of second highest peaks, such as St Catherine's Hill on the Isle of Wight! So, the list is started anew.
1) Arbury Hill, Northamptonshire. 225m. 07-10-2023
Walk technicality **
View *****
Company *****
Overall 10/10
They say you never forget your first. Hi there (Censored)!
I was in Daventry for a wargames competition (I didn't do that well), but I had asked the Whatsapp group of wargamers if anyone fancied joining me on a mad stomp, and the legend that is Graham Willmott said he would. So, after a hard day of throwing dice and pushing toy soldiers around, we primed a satnag, got in our cars and headed the five miles to Arbury Hill (a possible Iron Age hillfort), the highest point in Northamptonshire (by 1 metre) on a fantastic, warm, sunny autumnal evening.
Thankfully, I had done my research on this one as the hill is in private hands. We stopped off at the lovely Staverton Lodge, a busty working farm, where the landholder has their phone number posted, and called for permission. After setting a few (minor) ground rules (no litter and no dogs, and which fields did not have defensive cows with their calves), and checking how many of us there were.such as how many of us, we set off.
The walk was not at all strenuous with much chat about life and what we were both up to. Apart from one fence we had to climb, due to the gated route being in the cattle filled fields, which was a challenge for Graham's blue suede shoes. The top was soon approached and it looked amazing! You could really see the (possible) embankment line cut through by a motorcross track.
The summit was flat, rectangular area, with views all the way past Northampton to the East. You can see the cut through the embankment too. Honestly, it was fabulous. The views all round were brilliant, and it was a great 360 view, and teh company was superb too. 
The panorama from the top. Graham did a good job ducking out the way as I span round. 
The route. The summit is not actually marked on the ground, but there was definitely a slight rise that was above everything else (and looks like we hit it).
Stats, not as impressive as some that will come, but a really decent up for a short distance.
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