Grough Article
Grough recently published an article on Michael Dewey; with contribution by his wife Gillian, that explored The 500-Metre Tops of England and Wales hill list and touched upon his life and recent death.
Michael Dewey: the man whose name graces a list of
426 hills
Myrddyn Phillips, Guest contributor
Thursday 29 December 2022 03:23 PM GMT
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| Michael Dewey and his wife Gillian |
In November 2022, Michael Dewey, compiler of a list of 500m hills, died.
Myrddyn Phillips, a fellow hill-list enthusiast and collaborator
of Mr Dewey’s looks back on his work and its influence, along with personal
recollections from his widow Gillian.
In 1995 Constable published a book entitled Mountain tables; these
consisted of varied hill lists. Although all were of interest, one stood out
and this was entitled The 500-Metre Tops of England and Wales. The author of
the book and the compiler of this hill list is Michael Dewey and the list is
now known affectionately as the Deweys.
A hill list can be a tremendous aid in encouraging people to
investigate new places and hills that otherwise are little frequented, and this
list is no different. Its use has similarities to the Corbetts in Scotland
which can become the main aim of people who complete the higher Munros. Whereas
for those who concentrate their hillwalking south of the Scottish border it is
the 2,000ft mountains of both England and Wales that are the natural aims for
most hillwalkers. And as with the Munros and Corbetts, a person who completes
these 2,000fters can then digress to the next lower heighted category of hill;
these are the Deweys.
The Deweys mix metric and imperial height in their criteria to
bookend up to the 2000ft height band and take in all hills in England, Isle of
Man and Wales that are 500m and above and below 2000ft (609.6m) in height that
have 30m minimum drop.
When the list was first published it comprised 373 hills with 164
in England, five in the Isle of Man and 204 in Wales. The Deweys have undergone
extensive revision since first publication with more than 90 reclassifications
to the list.
The majority of changes to this list took place in the years 2000
and 2001, with over 70 of the additions and deletions taking place during a
20-month period. This was led by diligent map study and on-site basic line
surveying, and was instigated by three main people: David Purchase, Myrddyn
Phillips and Rob Woodall, who all worked closely together, swapping information
and co-ordinating this with Michael Dewey who instigated all necessary
alterations. In more recent years the reclassifications have been due to
independent surveyors and LIDAR [light detection and ranging] analysis.
The current total for the list is 426 hills, with this split in to
its component parts as: 241 in Wales, 180 in England and five in the Isle of
Man, with the last’s total unchanged since first publication in 1995.
The Deweys take in a wealth of upland landscape from the Cheviot
hills bordering Scotland, the Isle of Man, Wales from Eryri [Snowdonia] in the
North to Mynydd Preseli and the hills south of Bannau Brycheiniog all the way
down to Exmoor and Dartmoor in south-west England. The end result is a list of
hills that offers great opportunity for investigation.
Sadly Michael Dewey died on 5 November 2022. He had been ill for a
number of years but his death was still a shock.
I had considered him a friend for many years. Our friendship was
based through correspondence and communication. We only met once as I had
propositioned Michael for a YouTube interview and this was conducted close to
Kendal in the southern Lake District where he and his wife Gilliam had retired
to.
Our
friendship developed from communication indirectly relating to the listing of
The 500-Metre Tops of England and Wales, as I had compiled the equivalent list
for the Irish hills. I sent Michael a copy and he responded saying that he had
done likewise and suggesting that we co-author the list.
This started a line of communication through letter and more
recently email and then telephone. This communication carried on for more than
20 years. Our co-authored Irish lists, The 500-Metre Tops of Ireland and the
Irish Dodds, which was extracted from it, will remain just that, co-authored
and will retain Michael’s name. Both lists are available on the Haroldstreet
website.
The 500-Metre Tops of Ireland list was the first I had
co-authored. The working relationship Michael and I built up on this list taught
me many things, all of them positive. Co-authorship lends itself to
co-operation and compromise. Each can be beneficial, both to the finished
product, in this instance a hill list, but also to the people involved. In this
instance I can only speak for myself and working as a co-author with Michael
taught me the benefits of discussion and acceptance.
During all of the years we communicated there was never a
disagreement and our partnership worked extremely well. For that I will forever
be thankful to Michael. He always came across as a welcoming and thoroughly
decent person. He will be sadly missed. I’ll now hand you over to Gillian; his
wife to say a few words.
Gillian Dewey:
Michael and I were married for 47 happy years. We were a team and
he always liked me to take part in anything he undertook and I contributed to
his projects and interests. During our walks I always carried the sandwiches
and drinks. I therefore never got left behind or lost on the hills for too
long!
After Michael retired from GCHQ Cheltenham we moved to Cumbria. He
joined the Westmorland Geological Society and he was a leading light in the
Millennium Project geologically surveying the Lindale and Witherslack area. The
work resulted in the British Geological Survey publishing Sheet SD4B8SW.
Michael for some years was Secretary of Cumbria GeoConservation.
He added new sites found on walks that needed recording and protection. He
digitised the records of the organisation and produced leaflets introducing
people to the geology of Cumbria.
Fungi and lichens interested him with finds photographed,
researched and catalogued. One of his lichen photographs was displayed at Kew
Gardens. He gave talks on a wide range of subjects in the locality and took
groups out on field trips.
Michael produced his lists including the 500 metre tops for his
own use with no thought of publishing. I mentioned the mountain tables to a
colleague at work who then asked to see the lists. The colleague was impressed
and contacted a publisher. The rest is history.
I
have decided that Michael would have liked The 500-Metre Tops of England and
Wales to be continued and updated by Myrddyn Phillips. They had co-authored the
500m Irish list and were in regular correspondence about that list. The
500-Metre Tops of England and Wales list will in future be co-authored but
retaining Michael’s name as compiler and originator and therefore still known
as the Deweys.
Myrddyn Phillips:
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| Myrddyn Phillips, left, met Michael Dewey in Cumbria |
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