The maze at Hampton Court Palace was commissioned in about 1700 by William III, covers a third of an acre and is Britain’s oldest surviving hedge maze. Originally planted with hornbeam, it was later replanted using yew – and has long enchanted adults and children alike who, on average, take 20 minutes to find the centre. There’s classical context to the concept, namely Daedalus’s design for that labyrinth, but Adrian Fisher, who has created mazes all around the world, suggests that the intrigue dates back yet further “to the garden of Eden; there’s something we have been told we cannot get, so we are desperate to get it, to explore.”
The first thing to know is that a maze doesn’t need to be created using hedge (as anyone in East Anglia, where farmers regularly create maize mazes, will well be aware of), though if you do want hedge, the best types are yew or fast-growing holly, either of which will take about seven years to reach the appropriate height. Turf labyrinths are shallow-cut paths in the earth that lead you on a long, winding route to the centre; brick pavement mazes create patterns or pictures on the ground. There are even water mazes that use streams or jets of water to form paths (which, depending on the level of sophistication, might change as you walk through them).
They also don’t need to be huge. Michael Beaumont, who was the 22nd Seigneur of the Channel Island of Sark, created a 14m x 14m hedge maze in his garden with, in the centre, a tiny castle made of local granite – and it still took 15 minutes to find your way through as, using gates, he ensured the route was never the same. And Fisher maintains that you could have a very nice brick pavement maze that is only 5m x 5m.