| The
Maize Maze Craze |
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| Belvedere
Plantation, USA |
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"I
think
the secret of maize maze appeal lies in their scale - it is very difficult
to find places where you can get hopelessly lost and completely lose
your bearings."
Lynda Warren
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What do
six farms, a garden centre, two wild life parks, a stately home, a
castle and a sports park all have in common?
Mazes. Enormous mazes cut during the summer months into fields of
corn.
Unique
puzzles on an enormous scale carved into the landscape.
The puzzles are the work of Adrian Fisher who started the maze craze
back in 1993 when he created a record breaking maize maze on a farm
in Pennsylvania.
The Great Western Maze, near Swindon, is Wiltshire’s maize maze.
Covering
six acres of north Wiltshire countryside the Great Western Maze is
a monkey puzzle of a maze.
Two miles of paths, hedged by corn on the cob, map out the shape of
a giant monkey.
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| Great
Western Maze is a monkey puzzle of a maze |
Amazingly,
the owner, Lynda Warren, is neither a farmer, nor a landowner but
a maize maze fan:
"I'd been to one a couple of years previously," she says "and it was
one of those special things I did with my girls that we all loved
- no one was dragging their feet - it was fun just simple wholesome
fun."
With a field rented from a friend and an Adrian Fisher maze design
in the bag, Lynda was in business:
"I know
squat about farming" she says "although I know an awful lot about
maize now...!"
At
the beginning of May, Lynda was faced with an empty, brown field.
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| "I
know squat about farming, although I know an awful lot about
maize now...!" Lynda Warren |
By the
end of the month the field was full of 2" high corn shoots and
GPS (Global Positioning System) was brought in to mark out the paths
of the maze.
"We had a guy with a satellite antennae and a hand held computer and
he literally walked down the centre of every path and someone walked
behind him spraying a white line.
"Then it started to grow, man. We had to do something."
The something meant literally weeding out more than 200,000 plants
by hand to clear 2 miles of path.
Ten days of hand weeding later the monkey maze shape began to emerge.
With the official opening of the maze set for July 12, the maize is
expected to have reached a height of three feet.
But growing at a rate of 6" a week the corn won't stop until
it has reached a towering 6-8 feet.
Towering corn and the sheer size of the maze promises to keep visitors
lost and disoriented for hours.
A trail of clues to find in the maze and a code to crack adds to the
puzzle.
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| Aerial
shots show the monkey outline emerging |
But people
won’t be hopelessly lost and confused unless they want to be. Vantage
towers will help visitors get their bearings and a squad of staff
are on hand to round people up or to go in and rescue people.
So no excuses for cheating and forcing a way through a hedge:
"We all feel very protective about these paths so if anyone makes
anymore paths by destroying a hedge - we will shout.
"I'm going to hire feisty staff who are equal to seeing off hedge
breaker throughers."
So be warned.
With the official opening on July, 12, The Great Western Maze promises
to provide hours of fun and frustration.
"For the first time in my life," says Lynda "I've made something.
I've had an idea and I've made it.
"It has absolutely no purpose at all except fun. None."
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Great Western Maze opens
July, 12 to September, 8 and is located at Hay Lane, Junction
16 , M4, near Swindon.
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