Labyrinth Diary

This is a diary of the digging of the miz-maze at Downhouse Farm, Lower Eype, Dorset over the Easter weekend 2004.

Inception

I have created several miz-maze designs on beaches and in various other mediums for the past few years.  The most complex of these was a picture that I did in Gouache and pen which I subsequently sold.  I made another copy for myself (different colours and background etc.) which still hangs on my wall.  Since my first beach labyrinth I have always wanted to dig one of these designs in to the turf.  Where was the only question?

I mentioned the idea of digging a maze to some friends of mine, Nikki and Dean Exton at Downhouse Farm at Eype.  They seemed pretty enthusiastic and so the planning stages were begun.  Nikki and Dean had opened a their gardens for teas some years during the summer and it would provide an added attraction to their visitors as well as giving me a chance to fulfil one of my ambitions. 

I have had a passion for Celtic art for quite a few years and regularly take part in Bridport Open Studios.  We agreed that I could use the classroom that they had built on the farm for this event for 2004.  I would build the labyrinth during the August Bank Holiday weekend while the studios were open.  Over the subsequent months I realised that digging the maze and running the gallery would take more labour than just me.  I therefore proposed that I dig it over Easter, the weather being cooler and also there were four days instead of three.  The idea was agreed about two months before Easter so I had some rapid thinking to do.   

Three weeks to go

I wrote a press release to try and get volunteers for the maze digging as I fully realised that it was going to be quite a lot of hard work and many hands……  This was duly published by the Western Gazette, Dorset Evening Echo and the Bridport News.  Somehow it got into two issues of the Dorset Echo and I got several telephone calls from this, mainly from people that had dug these designs before.  One volunteer approached me and offered his services but unfortunately I could not contact him again though I left messages on his answering machine.  One caller, John Bullock, was very helpful and had recently dug a maze of a similar size in Dorset.  It had taken him two days with eight people and some confusion.  I had already decided that four or five people would be ideal otherwise chaos could result during setting out and digging as not everyone would be aware of their precise role in the whole action. 

I drew a fairly rough plan of the maze and worked out the size.  The paths would be 700mm wide with the walls 300mm wide and 100mm deep.  This gave a diameter of the completed maze of 54 feet.  I had worked out that I would have to dig 59 metres of turf 300mm wide per day to complete the task in the four days that I had allotted. 

Three Days to go

I had now resigned myself that I wouldn’t be getting much help.  Nikki said that a few people had shown interest at the café and there was a lot of interest at the Tourist Information office.  Whether they would be as keen when they saw a spade would be interesting to find out.  I couldn’t get hold of the chap that had offered his services and so I thought that I would have to at least start on my own.  Trepidation (and sympathetic backache) was starting to set in as to whether I had set myself too big a task!

Day one digging

I arrived on site at 10:00 am.  Dean suggested that I pile the cut turf on pallets so that we would not have to double handle them.  Good idea I thought.  I made the final decision on where the centre would be and checked that it was o.k. in the landscape.  As the maze was at the head of the valley I had decided that the orientation should be towards the dip in the valley where it met the sea.  This agreed with the principle that I used to finalise the design that it should be female in principle with the centre being a womb like shape.  This made it more representative of the life path and made the journey out of the maze as important as the journey in.  It also fitted that both the maze and the setting that it was in were representing the course of life. 

I had decided to keep the setting out as simple as possible just using poles and rope.  If I tied the rope to the spade and cut the sides of the turf first then I could use this guide to then just remove the turf.  It worked!  I set and cut the first three circles in the first day and did the more tricky cuts to join these up.

I had dug about 45 metres in the first day.  As this had involved the initial setting out and actual planning on the ground I was quite pleased and confident that I would finish but it might take an extra weekend of work.  Not too bad. 

Day two digging

Still no digging volunteers had arrived.  During the clearing of the previous days turf the pallet had broken under the weight of the turf.  I think that both Dean and I were fairly astonished at the volume of material that had come out.  The landscape and setting are stunning.  If I take a breather from digging it is just a lovely place to be.  When I arrived today a reporter from the Bridport News was waiting.  I don’t know how much he thought I would have done but he took some pictures and seemed to go away quite happy.  I knew that a photographer was coming from the Western Gazette the following day and he would have far more to look at.

During the morning quite a few people came to see what was going on.  Some had helpful suggestions like it would be a lot quicker and easier to dig it by machine.  I think they had perhaps missed the point of digging it by hand.  The visitors held the digging up a bit but the plus side was that I had to take a break when they were there.  Although it is hard work it is very satisfying to do.  You get into a rhythm of digging and this in itself turns into a kind of meditation.  Time seems to lose itself, and eating seems to have lost its importance except to take a break and sustain oneself. 

I had some people arrive in the afternoon that I had previously met and in fact had purchased my original Celtic labyrinth painting.  They stayed for some time talking and the chap did spend some time digging which was another greatly received break. 

At the end of the day I had dug the fourth ring and two thirds of the fifth ring.  This was in fact slightly more metrage than the day before. 

Day three digging

We had some friends staying over the Easter break and Mick decided that he wanted to help as it was too good an opportunity to miss.  He would probably never have the chance to do anything quite like this again.  A once in a lifetime opportunity.  I felt terrible that morning as I had had slightly more to drink the night before than was quite healthy.  We asked Nikki if we could have a cup of tea before proceedings commenced which we drank in the garden.  After this we went up to the field and promptly sat down to have a coffee from the flask that we had brought.  Once we started work the hangovers were quickly forgotten about.  

The photographer from the Western Gazette turned up and took some pictures that I imagine were quite good.  He said that they would appear in a future edition of the paper. 

Mick was an extremely good and keen digger.  He dug; I carted the turf to the pile.  It occurred to me then that it would have been a good idea to bring a wheelbarrow.  This was probably slightly late to have this thought. 

In the afternoon after we had had a few visitors, my wife Geraldine and family, Mick's wife, and Geraldine’s brother’s family including his wife’s Grandparents all arrived at the same time.  Some of them decided to walk the maze as it stood.  I could see that one aspect of the confusion that these mazes create is the apparent randomness of peoples actions when all walking the maze at slightly different times and paces.  The walkers all appeared to be walking in different random directions at the same time but all with purpose as to where they were going. 

We finished Ring five and completed rings six and seven.  A good day’s work for two people.  This gave me some confidence that I could finish on the Monday if I could dig in excess of sixty metres in one day. 

Day four digging

My ten year old daughter Rhiannon was very keen to come with me today to help with the digging.  I half expected this to be a flurry of energy and to have to take her back at lunchtime.  I was proven wrong.  Although the digging was hard for her she enjoyed helping mark out the digging and loading the turf into the digger bucket to remove it from site.  We spent most of the morning removing the turf from the previous days digging, about eight digger bucket loads in all and this posed the question as to whether we would finish.  But the last ring was now marked out and it was just a question of removing the turf. 

At about three o’clock the people from day two turned up again to see how it was progressing.  We had about twenty feet of turf left to take out so I had help again to lift the last turfs.  I lifted the final turf at about three-thirty.  Then cleared the site and all of us separately walked the maze. 

I had dug the maze mainly on my own.  I had learned a lot about what I can do if I put my mind to it.  I have learnt that I was definitely not fit when I started, but a lot fitter when I finished.  I had very valuable help mainly from friends but all of it from previous acquaintance.  I had created something in the landscape that could be used by anyone and appreciated by any who chose to. 

After the labyrinth was finished, we went through various ideas of how to highlight it, from filling the trenches with chalk, to planting hedging around the paths. Unfortunately, it was left and is now grown over, the paths only vaguely discernable in the field. Perhaps one day I will return for another days digging to clear it out...