Let’s take a look at gardens with mazes.

maze garden
image credit: https://pixabay.com/en/kids-playing-maze-kids-playing-2211604/

What can be more fun than trying to find your way out of a well planted maze?

This Countryfile Magazine

compiled a list of ten favourite mazes which shows what a great variety of designs there are.

Discover Britain

highlighted their favourite mazes in Lose Yourself in Britain’s Best Mazes.

We visited Burton Agnes Hall in East Yorkshire soon after the maze was planted in 1990.

Now the hedges are tall and dense and it’s great fun finding the centre and your way out again.

The Introduction to Mazes and Labyrinths website explains the fascination we have for mazes.

Many people feel the fascination of mazes, especially branching mazes where you can get lost, and there are myths and stories about them from Theseus to the modern day. When watching children (who usually run them rather than walking them!) it’s interesting that they rarely ‘cheat’ but follow the path to the centre, even if they could easily hop a wall and get there quicker.

In 15 Intricate Facts about Mazes

there’s a story of the largest corn maze ever created which was so huge visitors called the emergency services to help them find their way out!

And they helpfully explain the right hand rule for solving simple mazes.

In most simply constructed mazes, all of the walls are connected to the outer boundary of the maze—which means, trailing your hand along the wall when you start the maze will help you avoid getting lost in unconnected passageways.

We enjoyed visiting the maze at Hampton Court.

It was planted some time between 1689 and 1695 for William III and covers a third of an acre and with half a mile of paths. It’s possible that the current design replaced an earlier maze planted for Cardinal Thomas Wolsey. Imagine all those Tudor ladies chasing around its intricate layout.

The Daily Telegraph includes the Hampton Court Maze in its list of Britain’s most mind-boggling mazes along with the maze at Chatsworth House which we visited several years ago.

The Chatsworth House Maze was designed in 1962 for the 11th Duke of Devonshire.  1,209 English yews were planted to create the Maze.

In 2011 we visited Blenheim Palace for a day out.

This magnificent World Heritage Site needs more than just one day to see everything that’s on offer. The Marlborough Maze was opened in 1991. In addition to cannonballs, trumpets and flags  the maze also includes a V sign in honour of Winston Churchill, who was born at the palace. The head gardener, Hilary Wood, told The Guardian that it takes six people with hedge trimmers a week to prune the maze’s two miles of tapered yew hedges every October.

Somehow, we missed the maze when we visited Cliveden but it’s one of several National Trust Properties which maintains a maze along with a mass of secret doors, gardens and hiding holes.

Thanks for reading my blog today.

 

 

 

 

 

 

What can be more fun than trying to find your way out of a well planted maze?