About us Links Access Statement For The Jubilee Park.pdf Look what’s here… MINIATVRE GOLF Wye Valley Wye Valley BUTTERFLY ZOO

OPEN TIMES

Open daily from 10 a.m.

Izzy’s Ice-cream CAFE

About us

The aMazing HEDGE PUZZLE is the creation of its proprietors, brothers Lindsay and Edward Heyes.

The business was established in 1977 when their Jubilee Maze was planted. While researching mazes, Lindsay noticed that until the 15th Century mazes had only a single path and never had a hedge. Historians maintained - contrary to the evidence - that these ancient mazes must have been a symbol of mazes with more than one path. Lindsay started to research the conflicting evidence, and so the Museum of Mazes had its first incarnation.

By late 1990, Lindsay had realised that there might have been some sort of puzzle linking the geometry of mazes to the myths about them. While planning a new Museum of Mazes, he learnt German so that he could use the catalogue of Hermann Kern in Germany as a framework to compare the work of other researchers. He conflated a passing observation of a Danish researcher with the archaeology of John Kraft and classification system of Bo Stjernstrom in Sweden, the topological analysis of Peter Phillips in the U.S.A., and analytical geometry by mathematician Nigel Hodges in England. This led to his discovery that every maze over about a thousand years old had been made by a few related algorithms. The new Museum of Mazes was built to encourage visitors to explore this idea hands-on, whatever their level of mathematics.

In late 2009, Lindsay completed a further line of research into whether literary labyrinths were really mazes. He demonstrated that they had the same function as mazes, and that it was the pattern - not the writing - which imparted the function. This proves that literary labyrinths are conceptually equivalent to mazes. The Museum of Mazes was refurbished to include literary labyrinths for the first time, using them to illustrate the magical function of mazes of all types.

Today, the brothers operate the aMazing Hedge Puzzle, Wye Valley Butterfly Zoo, Wye Valley Miniature Golf, and Wye Valley Warfare Laser Ops. They also provide and maintain the common amenities. The garden centre and cafe are independently run.