Church Farmhouse Museum maze
Church Farmhouse Museum has a maze in its small public garden.
It was formally opened in Spring 2007 with a day of maze-themed events especially for children in the garden.
It is a traditional ‘puzzle maze’, marked out using interlocking bricks set in the grass, with a number of false trails as well as the one true path leading to its centre.
The maze was made possible by a generous bequest to the museum in 2004 by the late Colette Anna Fontaine, with additional funding kindly being given by the Friends of Church Farmhouse Museum.
Some facts about mazes:
- Mazes have existed for 4000 years. They appear as labyrinths in Greek mythology and in Ancient Roman mosaics;
- Stone mazes, dating from 1200 years ago, still exist in Scandinavia, and the Vikings introduced mazes to Britain;
- Later, mazes were marked in stone in the floors of medieval French cathedrals;
- Hedge mazes appeared in Italy during the Renaissance, and soon became a feature of aristocratic gardens all over Europe;
- The big public parks created in British cities by the Victorians often included hedge mazes;
- The popularity of mazes revived in the 1980s and today new ones are being made all over the world. It was recently calculated that there were 125 mazes open to the public in Britain (based on figures for the year 2006).
Email this pageLast modified by: Webmaster on 27/11/2007