Solve the Hedge Puzzle

Now for The AMAZING HEDGE PUZZLE itself, the famous Jubilee Maze. It's over 20 years old, but the design is traditional. This style, a "Labyrinth of Love", was popular in the heyday of mazes between three and four hundred years ago.

Split up when you first go in - it's not designed to get you really lost - it's great fun to shout out to each other: "Over here!", "It's this way", and "No it's not!". The whole idea is to play games in it, just as people did in mazes very like this in days of old.

Most people go 'round the maze again and again, because it's so much fun! If you do get seriously lost, you can always wave an item of clothing in the air - although speed of rescue may depend on the size of the item and it's nature - or you could try shouting for help... but can you really trust the people on the viewing platform ? This is where you find out who your friends are !

Here are the statistics:

The Paths:

• twelve routes to the centre;
• shortest route is 180 metres;
• one escape-route from centre;
• thirteen dead-ends - unlucky for some;
• paths wide enough for wheelchairs;
• they wear down by two inches a year!

The Hedges:

• they're over two metres high;
• they're over a metre thick;
• there are 1,039 Port Orford Cedar bushes;
• trees are fed individually measured amounts of fertiliser;
• there is over a kilometre of hedge;
• the hedge is arranged in seven concentric octagons;
• they take about 10 weeks a year to trim !

Caring for The AMAZING HEDGE PUZZLE

The Jubilee Maze is all cut once a year, and the sunny side is cut twice. The main trim takes six weeks - Edward Heyes ensures it's one of the best-kept hedge mazes in Britain by cutting the hedge himself. He uses stilts to reach the top of the hedge, which must be cut by eye: the maze looks flat across the top of the hedge, but some adjacent paths are as much as twenty centimeters different in level to ensure natural drainage.

Caring for the Environment