The Maze

The maze, situated in the top northeast corner of the walled garden, was planted in the spring of 1990 and seemed an obvious choice of interest for the walled garden due to its Elizabethan origins. Over 700 yew bushes were used to build the maze and despite yew being regarded as a slow plant to develop it actually grew at a rate of one foot per year. Once mature the rate of growth slowed considerably, which is a great advantage when maintaining the maze, particularly in removing clippings from the centre!

The only caution to be noted when ordering yew bushes, as we found to our own amusement, is that 'yew' is not to be confused with 'ewe'. On the morning that our yew bushes were due to be delivered the nursery who supplied the plants rang the office to say that they would be delivering them that afternoon. The message was passed on to the farm men who we later discovered were actually waiting to unload 700 ewes and thought we had suddenly decided to go in for sheep farming in a big way!

Visitors to the garden, young and old enjoy getting lost in the maze and to make ours more interesting we have included a riddle for visitors to solve. There are a number of small gardens on the way into the centre which provide the clues and the riddle is a well known saying.