Sods Law

Sourced from the digital site of the New York Public Library is this interesting reference to a Turf Maze which existed just to the East of my home city of Kingston Upon Hull, Yorkshire. 

As the name suggests it is a form of labyrinth of simple shallow excavation and yet the best documented and even fewer surviving examples today depict complex geometric and symbolic shapes. 

The record of the Hull Turf Maze comes from a publication entitled "The Repository of Arts, Literature, Commerce, Manufactures, Fashion and Politics". The date of the issue was April 1815 which in terms of context was just a couple of months before the pivotal Battle of Waterloo on mainland Europe.

The contributor is only initialled but evidently it was quite an honour to have a submission or article accepted as he or she is quite star-struck in their tone of writing. 

The Hull Turf Maze was called "Walls of Troy" which will have hearkened from the famous Ancient City whose defences were designed to thwart and confuse attacking forces. 

The location was only identified as being some four miles east of Hull and nestled close to the bank of the River Humber. In 1815 the area will have been perceived as quite lonely and remote amongst agricultural land and tracts being reclaimed from the boggy estuary. There will have been a few dispersed farmsteads and workers cottages and an early fortification at Paull to defend the approach to Hull against the then threat of the navy of Napoleon. 

The Maze was described as a duodecagon some forty feet in diameter. 

Within these parameters were twelve circumscribed grass walks each of a path thirteen to fourteen inches wide and dug out to a depth of six inches. The correspondent made it 320 ordinary paces to negotiate. 

They were a popular feature of village fairs and festivities from the 17th Century onwards although earlier Medieval versions are thought to have served a religious purpose to simulate the tortuous route of a Pilgrimage or if crawled on hands and knees as a form of penalty for sins. 

As a living natural thing many mazes if not regularly tended and maintained just disappeared or just fell out of fashion under the depopulation of the countryside with the onset of the Industrial Revolution and Urbanisation. 

It is not therefore surprising that to the present day only 8 turf mazes have survived in England and even fewer in Europe or wider afield. 

One notable Turf Maze is at Alkborough on the edge the Lincolnshire Wolds overlooking the convergence of the Rivers Trent, Ouse and Derwent. As the crow flies this is just 20 or so  miles from the likely Hull location in the Marfleet and Paull area. 

Julians Bower is meticulously kept and well worth a visit to appreciate the workmanship and symbolism. As with many such Mazes there are fabled tales of their origins. Julians Bower has a legendary link to a Knight who formed it as a Pennance for his involvement in the murder of Thomas a Becket in 1170 but it is actually thought to date from around 1670. 

Julians Bower at Alkborough, Lincolnshire 

The Hull maze has an even more hazy provenance although the 19th Century contributor claimed to have met a passing countryman who claimed credit for it. 

The illustration below may be the closest representation of the Hull Maze

Unfortunately Walls of Troy was either neglected and reclaimed by nature or intentionally destroyed under the plough some time in the mid 1800's.