Walk the maze for free (Hilton Maze (Hilton))

Member Name: mumsymary

Product:	Hilton Maze (Hilton)
Date:	10/08/09 (145 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Historic turf maze , only one of a few left in the country

Disadvantages: None

Hilton village maze
~~~~~~~~~~~~~.

Hilton is the village where I grew up, few of my family live there any longer, but my family lived there for many generations.
A place in the village that will forever remain in my memories is the village turf maze. If you were to see this maze you might wonder why maze? I think technically this turf maze is called a labyrinth.

So are you packed with a picnic and a football to play with on the village green afterwards? Iif so come with me.

*Location
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You can either come from the east, along the A14 turn at Fenstanton, half way between Huntingdon and Cambridge, to Hilton. It is a minor road but signposted. Or coming the other way, from the west, turn off the A 1198 Ermine Street, at Papworth St'Agnes, where the heart hospital is, between Cambridge and Huntingdon. The minor road to Hilton turns at the pub (not sure if it's still a pub) Kisby's hut.

The turf maze is situated on the edge of the village green. This green was laid out by Capability Brown who was Lord of the Manor at nearby Fenstanton.
Reaching the edge of the village from Fenstanton, go past the football pitch on your left and the thatched cottage on the right, past the cricket pitch and then it's on your right; just before the village hall and the ford. The maze is just across the road from the old village school which is now the village hall.
O S Grid reference TL293663

Have you found the maze? There is probably a wooden bench by it, used to be. This is in memory of a village elder, I can't remember if it was my grandad, or one of his old cronies. There is also a small information board about the maze and Hilton too. To walk on this maze is free.

*History.
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The maze was cut in 1660 by William Sparrow when he was 19-20 years old. He lived on to be 88 years old. Whether he cut the maze to the design himself or recut the maze on the remnants of an earlier one no one knows. There is stone pillar in the centre, written in Latin with a coat of arms and it records when and who constructed the maze. This was erected 69 years after William Sparrow worked on the maze.
I am not sure if William Sparrow was an ancestor of mine. He might have been since it was a small village and my family are an old village family with several Sparrows in their ancestry (and Starlings as well, another Hilton village name).

*Design and Restoration of paths.
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The maze is what is called a Chartres design, copying a pattern found in medieval art. One such design found on the floor of Chartres Cathedral in France.
There are no original maps to Hilton maze so the true design is a bit confused especially the centre. There has been much debate as to whether there were 5 entrance to the middle of the maze or only one. There is definitely only one way into the maze from the outside of the maze these days.
I believe the village restored the maze to the single path that they think the maze originally took. Years earlier when my granddad took on th voluntary job of cutting the maze, the centre had got overgrown and part of the paths joined into the centre. I remember 3 entrances to the middle, 2 of them being the beginning and end of a small loop. I think that changes made more recently just cut the paths to join together before going into the middle of the maze making the middle slightly smaller than it was when I was a nipper

*More recent history
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The maze is in good condition, frequently mown and looked after. My grandad used to mow it regularly when he was alive. This is going back to the 1960's now. I did not often go with him as I would get in his way and he would not be happy.

The maze is a turf maze, not so much a maze as a labyrinth. A labyrinth being a single path. This maze is 55 feet in diameter. Sorry I can not tell you how far you walk if you walk the complete path to teh centre and back.

The paths are quite thin at 15 inches wide; only wide enough for one person to tread the path. The gulley between the paths are about the same width.
Now tread the path in carefully don't walk on the edges and crumble the soil into the galleys! My granddad used to moan about people that did that; follow the curved path around and twisting this way and that, til you get to the centre. I am not sure when it was done but the paths have been slightly changed. When I was a child there was the one path to the centre then, when in the centre, a small path of only one twist went back to the centre.

It only takes a few minutes to walk around the maze, to the centre, look at the inscriptions on the stone pillar then walk the maze back again.

I believe there are only 8 old turf mazes of this type left in England. I believe the Hilton one is one of the best, well cared for and in a fantastic position.



*Me and the maze.
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I expect I first saw the maze just after I was born in 1954 and taken for walks past it in my huge black coach built pram. I expect I toddled around it holding my dad or mums hand too. I suppose my first real memories are from when I was 5 or 6 when I would run round it after visiting the little village shop. A bit older, I used to go to the maze sometimes and play running around it. I would meet village friends there. There are several trees behind the maze I would climb up a few branches to sit there and watch the world go by (often got told to get down from that tree by one of the old codgers). As I got even older, I guess I rarely played on the maze as such, maybe walked it occasionally for something to do as I was bored. When as an adult with my own child and visiting my parents we would go for a short walk round the green and sometimes walk the maze. When it was my father's funeral, just over a year ago, must be the last time I walked the maze. As we held the funeral at the village church and then had a family gathering in the hall afterwards. Myself and several other family members took a breather from the hall and walked the maze.
I found myself thinking how good it felt to be walking somewhere, I am sure my family members had walked for several hundreds of years. Although I doubt I will go back to the village often now, I shall take my grandchildren to walk on the maze one day.



Thanks for walking round Hilton's turf maze with me. Now go and have fun on the village green, have a picnic, watch the cricket or the foot ball.

Summary: A turf Labrynth maze in a beautiful cambridgeshire village