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Mazes of the Thames Valley & Beyond

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London

. London .
TQ1268 Hampton Court The Famous hedge  maze was part of a larger garden called "The Wilderness" constructed in 1690 (see right >) The current maze is in the bottom left of the plan, the rest of the garden has been re-designed but later gardeners were told to leave the maze well alone! 
Harris asked me if I'd ever been in the maze at Hampton Court. He said he went once to show somebody else the way. He had studied it up on a map and it was so simple that it seemed foolish - hardly worth the twopence charge for admission. Harris said he thought the map must have been got up as a practical joke because it wasn't a bit like the real thing, and only misleading.......
Thus begins the adventure of the maze in Jerome K. Jerome's Three Men in a Boat.

Hampton Court Maze
Hampton Court Maze
TQ2274 Putney Heath Site of turf maze .
TQ2979 Tothill Fields The Maze - site of Turf Maze - restored 1672, now lost. "There is a maze at this day in Tuthill Fields, Westminster, and much frequented in summer-time in fair afternoons" John Aubrey 1686 .
TQ3179 Southwark Former grounds belonging to the abbot of Battle Abbey. "spacious gardens with walls and a maze" Area later known as The Maze .
TQ3977 Greenwich Maze Hill - reputed site of Turf Maze .
TQ4745 Edenbridge Hever Castle. Puzzle hedge maze in yew (planted 1905) .
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Herts

. Hertfordshire .
TL2308 Hatfield House Puzzle hedge maze in Yew (planted 1840). Also a small one in box in the knot garden. .
TL5438 Saffron Walden "The Maze" on The Common. Largest existing Turf Maze.

Saffron Walden Maze

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Windsor

. Windsor Forest .
SU7180 Sonning Common The Herb Farm - The Saxon Hedge Maze (modern puzzle). Find your way to the centre via the eyes of 4 sea monsters planted with 4 important anglo-saxon herbs. At the centre, the maze can be viewed from a mound. .
SU7282 Greys Court The Archbishops Maze - Turf Maze - result of a dream by Robert Runcie (Archbishop of Canterbury) Arch Bishops Maze
SU7660 Bramshill Maze Hill. Possible site of Turf Maze
SU8868 Bracknell The Cuckoo's Nest turf maze. Cut into front lawn by author. Folkscape logo. Shown here picked out by late snow. See also Here Cuckoo's Nest Maze
SU8746 Farnham Crooksbury Hill:   Not to be confused with Hillbury: See below  .
SU9146 Guildford Hillbury:  In Mazes and Labyrinths Their History and Development, W. H. Matthews mentions a "Troy Town" on "Hillbury" between Guildford and Farnham. .
SU9547 Compton Watts Chapel : Mazes in brick and stucco.
Click for more
Watt's Chapel Maze
TQ0248 Guildford St. Martha's Hill. Reputed site of turf maze .
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Chilterns

. Chiltern Hills .
SP8405 Ellesborough Chequers House. The 1629 estate map shows an 11 circuit medieval turf maze just beyond the Bowling Green. This became known as The Druid's Maze before becoming overgrown in the 1920's The Druid Maze, Chequers
TQ0198 Chenies Chenies Manor Turf and gravel maze (cut 1983) design from old painting. .
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KennetE

. Kennet East .
SU5771 Stanford Dingley Mazelands Farm. Possible site of Turf Maze. .
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Oxford

. Oxfordshire .
SP1822 Wyck Rissington In 1950 Canon Harry Cheales had a dream in which he was commanded to create a maze in the then overgrown rectory garden. It took 5 years to create the hedge maze of yew, privet and willow. An annual ceremonial walk was held on St. Laurence's Day. The design is recorded in a mosaic in the parish church. .
SP4416 Woodstock Rosamond's Bower - Legend - Henry II had a lover, the fair Rosamond who was kept from prying eyes in an underground room reached via winding passage-ways entered from the centre of a complex hedge maze. One day, however, on returning from visiting Rosamond, Henry had not realised that he had snagged a spur on a thread of silk. The tell tale thread led a suspicious Queen Eleanor to where Rosamond hid. Poor Rosamond was offered a goblet of poison or dagger with which to kill herself by the furious Queen - and she chose the poison. 
Blenheim Palace symbolic puzzle hedge maze in yew celebrating The Duke of Marlboroughs military victories.
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SP5127 Somerton Troy Town:  Situated within the grounds of Troy Farm (not open to the public) this 60 foot diameter, 15 circuit classical turf labyrinth could be one of our oldest, its design pre-dating the medieval "Chartres" type. .
SP5404 Temple Cowley Tarry/Troy Town - Turf Maze - Destroyed 1852. Only 5 metres in diameter and located next to a small mound called "Cobbler's Knowl". A copy on nearby Bullingdon Green was next to several open-air Nine Men's Morris pitches.

The nine-men's-morris is filled up with mud
And the quaint mazes in the wanton green,
For lack of tread are undistinguishable
(Shakespeare:  A Midsummer Night's Dream)

Temple Cowley Maze

Nine Men's Morris

Temple Cowley
Maze 

Nine Men's
Morris

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KennetW

. Kennet West .
ST8043 Longleat Longleat House: World's longest puzzle hedge maze in yew (planted 1978) .
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Gloucs

. Gloucestershire .
SP0202 Cirencester Roman Mosaic Floor Mazes .
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Mendips

. Mendip, Quantock & Blackdown Hills .
ST1442 Kilve Kilve Maze Hedge Maze with Silver Birch Tree at Centre? No access to general public.
ST4938 Glastonbury Glastonbury Maze The church of St. John the Baptist in Glastonbury High Street has a 7 circuit classical labyrinth in the church yard (as well as a Holy Thorn). The ends of the brick lines marking out the maze have stones with symbols of various saints carved on them including one for Joseph of Aramathea with his Holy Thorn Tree.
Many see this very same maze pattern in the terraces of nearby Glastonbury Tor 
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LandsEnd

. Lands End and The Lizard .
SW7727 Glendurgan Glendurgan Gardens: Cherry Laurel Maze .


National

. Other Sites in England & Wales .
SV8707 St. Agnes (Scilly) Stone Labyrinth .
SX0789 Rocky Valley Labyrinths carved into rock face Classical Maze
SU1420 Breamore "Mizmaze" Turf Maze Breamore Mizmaze
SK4876 Blackgang Chine Puzzle hedge maze in privet (planted 1962) .
SU4827 Winchester St Catherines Hill : "Mizmaze" Cut into the turf on the top of St Catherine's Hill, overlooking the River Itchen and Winchester, are the winding paths of the Mizmaze. It is said that a schoolboy detained at College during the Whitsun holidays cut the maze as well as composing the tune of "Dulce Domum" (The Winchester School Holiday Song) before drowning himself in the river. A more recent version has him hanging himself in the beech trees which now stand where an old chapel was.
Domum, domum, dulce domum!
Domum, domum, dulce domum;
Dulce, dulce dulce domum!
Dulce domum resonemus!
Home, home, joyous home!
Home, home, joyous home!
Joyous, joyous, joyous home!
Hurrah for joyous home!
Winchester Mizmaze
SP7665 Boughton Green The Shepherd's Race (former Turf Maze) was situated on a triangular piece of land, the site of a famous fair granted a charter by Edward III in 1351 and connected with the nearby church of St. John the Baptist and its holy well. The fair stopped after 1915 and the maze was destroyed by army exercises in 1917. .
TL2966 Hilton Village Green.  Turf Maze Hilton Maze
TL5480 Ely Ely Cathedral pavement labyrinth. Constructed by Sir Gilbert Scott during the Cathedral's restoration in 1870. After entrance at the west door. Ely Cathedral Labyrinth
TF4509 Wisbech
Chapel Road near Peckover House, North Brink, Wisbech. Old map shows what appears to be a hedge maze (in what are now the grounds of Wisbech Grammer School). A modern hedge maze has been planted nearby in the gardens of Elgoods Brewery
Wisbech Maze
Wisbech Maze
TQ8253 Leeds (Kent) Leeds Castle: Puzzle hedge maze with central tower and underground groto .
SO5516 Symonds Yat The Jubilee Maze: Puzzle hedge maze in Lawson's Cypress .
SK2669 Chatsworth Chatsworth House: Puzzle hedge maze in yew (planted 1962) .
SK8902 Wing "The Old Maze" Turf Maze. Spectators may have watched the sport of running the maze from a mound which once stood in an adjacent field. .
SE8821 Alkborough "Julian's Bower" Turf Maze, on high ground, overlooking the confluence of the River Trent and Humber estuary. Mentioned  in the Diary of Abraham de la Pryme (between 1671 and 1704) "Gillian's Bore .... nothing but a great labyrinth cut upon the ground with a hill cast up round about for spectators to sitt round about on to behold the sport."  Around 1800 it was still being used  by villagers to play May-eve games "under an indefinite persuasion of something unseen and unknown co-operating with them." (Notes and Queries 1866 ) .
SJ4811 Shrewsbury The Shoemaker's Race: Kingsland, Shrewsbury.Former turf maze owned and kept by the Patriotic Company of Shoemakers. Festivities were held here on the first Tuesday after Whitsun. It was surrounded by an enclosed garden. .
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. . International Perspective .
Germany Eilenriede Forest, Hanover.  The Rad turf maze. Only surviving turf labyrinth in Germany .
Germany Eberswalde Zauberkreis (Magic Circle) Legend that the maze was cut by a shepherd condemned to death for some crime he had committed. .
Bavaria Kaufbeuren Former Turf maze used in dance festivals until destroyed in 1942. .
Poland Slupsk Windelburg (Coil City) Under guardianship of the Shoemaker's Guild who celebrated here every 3rd year on the Tuesday after Whitsun. A "May Count" was elected and he and his assistants would dance to the centre of the labyrinth  where he would make a humurous speech and dance back out again.  .
Finland Wier Island Stone labyrinth .
Gothland Wisby Stone labyrinth .
. Iceland Stone or earth  labyrinths called "Weylands House" .
. Norway & Sweden Stone labyrinths called "Nun's Fence", "Maiden's Dance", "Round Castle", "Trolls castle", "Troy Town", "Stone Dance" .
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