The State of the Art of the Maze
Adrian Fisher
For 14 years, Minotaur Designs has specialised in creating highly innovative and uniquely designed mazes. By the end of 1992, we had designed over 60 mazes worldwide, as far afield as the Netherlands, Florida, Texas, California, Hawaii, South Korea and Argentina, as well as throughout the British Isles.
The past year has been as eventful as ever. Our maze design team based in St.Alban's, England, has been strengthened by the addition of Mary Goodwin, a qualified architect. Also, our lavishly illustrated book The Art of the Maze came out in paperback, and is reaching an ever wider audience.
The fascination in mazes has become worldwide. Mr & Mrs Wong from Paradise Park in Hawaii visited us in February 1992, and we took them to see the hedge maze at Blenheim Palace, Oxfordshire, and the Magical Mirror Maze at Wookey Hole Caves; they are now the proud owners of two of our specially designed Colour Mazes in Hawaii.
Three Lands Point Maze
Three Lands Point lies where Holland, Belgium and Germany meet, and is where Jean Janssen, Jurgen van Olphen and Frans Roosen commissioned us to design a giant 300 foot (91m.) diameter symbolic hedge maze. The maze was opened in May 1992. As a world first, the maze has nine rows of foaming fountains across the paths, rising and falling according to the movement of the visitors, thus giving the puzzle and extra dimension of time. There are three large bridges and a central tower within the maze, as well as a sheltered courtyard with refreshments and a puzzle shop. At the finish, a Minotaur Colour Maze portrays various European flags. Both this hedge maze and its unique colour maze appear on our new Maze Video.
 The Three Lands Maze, (Labyrint Drielandenpunt), Vaals, Nederland. Plan copyright 1992 Minotaur Designs.
The Alice in Wonderland Maze
Russell and Lucy Lucas-Rowe opened their Alice-in-Wonderland Maze at Merritown House in Dorset during May 1992, attended by the media and a brass band. Randoll Coate and Adrian Fisher designed the octagonal beech hedge maze to portray various creatures from the Alice story, and it is one of England's largest hedge mazes at 240 feet (73m.) across.
The maze is opposite Hurn airport; and is open daily throughout the summer months, 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Merritown Farm also offers a number of other attractions and pick-your-own fruit and vegetables, according to season. Details, tel.: 0202 483004.
 the Alice in Wonderland Maze, Merritown Farm, Hurn, nr.Bournemouth, Dorset, England. 
Colour Mazes
On 9th July 1992, H.R.H.the Prince of Wales formally opened Eureka! - The Children's Museum, in Halifax, Yorkshire. Gillian Thomas, its Director, commissioned Minotaur to create an unusual maze entitled It's a Small World simulating the world's telecommunications network - with children running around as fax messages. We also supplied a Frog Jumping Maze.
One of our loveliest Colour Maze designs is the Owl Maze, 45 feet (14m.) long, installed in July 1992 for Andrew Pugh, Managing Director of the Heights of Abraham Country Park in Derbyshire.
 Owl Maze, Derbyshire
Edward Wallace, Headmaster of Cliff School in Wakefield, Yorkshire, commissioned a magnificent pavement Maze Courtyard, which was built outside the new School Hall during the 1992 summer holidays. The brightly-coloured brick paving design incorporates three mazes of varying complexity, and continues to prove very successful with pupils.
 the Maze Courtyard, Wakefield
John Gordon, Headmaster of Ferrars Junior School in Luton, Bedfordshire, had a Colour Maze in brick paving, as part of the school's new Mathematical Garden, the first of its kind in southern England. The maze is very popular, and its distinctive Islamic design reflects the fact that a quarter of the pupils are Muslim. The formal opening was by the popular children's TV presenter Johnny Ball, and was shown on television during January 1993.
The 1993 International Year for Multiple Sclerosis in Ireland is being promoted with a colourful 20 foot portable maze map of Ireland, where the puzzle is to travel from city to city around a giant map. The maze is travelling all round Ireland during the year, starting in Dublin.
The Dyfed Education Resource Centre, in Wales, is travelling from school to school with a portable 20 foot Butterfly Colour Maze, on whose wings are 13 giant playing cards linked by coloured maze paths. Each card relates to an environmental quiz question, with your choice of answer leading along a path to another playing card. Further sets of quiz questions are based around ecology, conservation and so on, and the maze makes learning so much more fun.
Two Minotaur Colour Mazes are included within the International Puzzle Exhibition in Atlanta, Georgia, USA, which runs until April 1993.
In September 1992, Dennis Poulsen, President of Rose Hills Memorial Park in Los Angeles commissioned us to design two pavement mazes, each symbolising The Path of Life. Close liaison closely with Bruce Lazenby at Rose Hills, Mary Goodwin and Adrian Fisher devised a circular and a heptagonal design - both pavement mazes are in polished blue green and cream stone.
We look forward to 1993 with many new mazes to create - in hedges, mirrors, fountains, wood, paving, colour, the lot! - in Australia, New Zealand, France, the Far East, the United States and Canada, as well as all over Britain.
Plans are already in hand for a Dinosaur Maze at a superb site on the south coast of England and work continues on a new book Mazes and Networks, to be published by Cambridge University Press in 1994. The book is aimed at teachers and the organisers of children's museums and science centres, and will cover a broad range of topics.
Minotaur Designs are now based at:
42 Brampton Road, St.Alban's,
Hertfordshire, AL1 4PT, England.
New telephone no.: (44) 0727 844800,
and new Fax no.: (44) 0727 844801.

Adrian Fisher, Minotaur Designs, March 1993