Get lost in the maize

Aug 12 2009 by Matt Hurst, Bromborough and Bebington News

THE Brimstage Maize Maze is open for business!

Now a well-established summer time treat, this year’s maize maze has been constructed around a Lost in Space theme, in response to popular demand and to tie in with the 40th anniversary of the moon landings.

To test the latest incarnation, Wirral News sent some intrepid reporters into the breach, armed only with a camera, a bottle of water and a trusty flag.

So, after spotting a couple of five-year-olds to tail, Wirral News dived into the maze – and soon got horribly lost!

Clare Gregory, of Gregorys’ Farm, designed and created the 2009 effort. She said: “I don’t think there’s anybody starving to death in there!

“Every group that goes in gets a flag and we have staff stood on the bridge to keep a look out.

“If anybody wants rescuing, stay still, stick the flag up and somebody will come and help.”

The seven-acre maze is cut into a field of 980,000 individual maize crops, each standing above six foot so even the tallest among us won’t have an advantage.

Indeed, Clare says it’s often children who are most successful. She said: “Kids seem to have more of a head for it than adults. Adults put too much thought into it, while the kids seem to have better spacial awareness.”

To keep the children quiet, an ‘intergalactic passport’ is provided full of games and puzzles, just in case they don’t find the maze tricky enough.

But that’s unlikely. Once you’re in, any directional instinct seems to fly out of the window, and attempts at using the sun to identify our position proved fruitless.

Finally we managed to find our way back to the start, after a few nervous moments when the flag came close to being raised.

The maze is open daily from 10.30am and 6pm, at Gregorys’ Farm behind Brimstage Courtyard. Admission is £5 for adults and £4 for children, with under-3s free.