Mizmaze

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

The Breamore Miz-Maze in May 2005
The Breamore Miz-Maze in May 2005

Mizmaze (or Miz-Maze) is the name given to two of England's eight surviving historic turf mazes. One is at Breamore, in Hampshire; the other is on top of St Catherine's Hill, overlooking the city of Winchester, Hampshire.

A mizmaze forms a pattern unlike conventional mazes and is classed as a labyrinth because the path has no junctions or crossings. The pattern appears more like a very long rope, neatly arranged to fill the area.

Contents

[edit] St Catherine's Hill

The Winchester mizmaze is most unusual, being roughly square, although its paths curve gently and it has rounded corners. It is also one of only two surviving historic English turf mazes where the path is a narrow groove in the turf (the other is at Saffron Walden, Essex). More commonly the turf itself forms the raised path, which is marked out by shallow channels excavated between its twists and turns; this is the case at Breamore, where the mizmaze is circular (a version of the medieval labyrinth design) and surrounded by trees.

[edit] Mount Ephraim Mizmaze

A large modern Mizmaze has been created by garden designer Sarah Morgan at Mount Ephraim, a nine-acre garden near Faversham, Kent, England. Although based on a traditional labyrinth design, the layout incorporates some dead-ends, making it a hybrid between a maze and a labyrinth. The pattern of the grass paths is marked out with combinations of tall-growing ornamental grasses and colourful herbaceous perennial plants.

[edit] See also

[edit] Further reading

[edit] External links