The hugely popular Lakeland Maze Farm Park, located in the village of Sedgwick near Kendal, has risen to the challenges posed by social distancing to reopen its fabulous maize maze for the 2020 tourism season.
The farm park, at Raines Hall Farm, is celebrating its 16th year of creating fun maze challenges for families travelling from locations across the north, with owners Jane and Graham Wadsworth having cut out their first maze in 2005. This year, the park is offering an experience that gets curiouser and curiouser the more you explore it, having pulled a rabbit out of the hat and made Alice in Wonderland the theme for its amazing maize maze 8-acre puzzle.
The theme has been chosen to celebrate the 200th anniversary of Sir John Tenniel, who illustrated Lewis Carroll’s books and the fields of 6-feet-tall maize (due to reach 8 feet!) have had the White Rabbit and his all-important timepiece carved into them, creating a series of twists and turns and circular and straighter walkways that keep the little grey cells active for a good 90 minutes or more.
Whilst the challenge has typically been faced by visitors and not the park in the past, this year has seen the Wadsworths puzzling out how to deliver the same fantastic day out, whilst still abiding by the strict health guidelines in place.
One of the most visual differences is to be found in the maze itself, where raised bridges and staff lookout points have been removed, to avoid having hand contact with rails. This makes the maze more puzzling than ever, as the bridges helped explorers’ get their bearings. With no ‘EAT ME’ Wonderland snack to make them grow as tall as the maize and deduce the way forward, families will need to rely on their wits!
The farm has also had to adapt the maze pattern, to reduce pinch-points and dead-ends and maintain social distancing within the crop. Wellies cannot be hired out this year but luckily, as a farm attraction with petting facilities, sanitation points were already required, so nothing has changed in that respect. Staff will be controlling the numbers in the maze at any one time and checking people in and out, so that nobody is left lost inside the maze!
The farm has also had to reduce some of its indoor barn activities, due to the regulations relating to indoors activity, but is urging visitors to be as punctual as the White Rabbit, so they don’t miss out on a 10 to 15-minute tractor trailer ride around the farm park, which can still cater for family bubbles.
A large vintage tractor and large and small animal barns are still open for family enjoyment, offering visitors an opportunity to meet the residents, including sheep, pigs, ferrets, rabbits, alpacas, llamas, donkeys and goats.
They can also enjoy other outdoor activities including an outdoor wooden panel maze, plus mini-maze for younger and more elderly visitors alike.
The catering has changed a little, but families can now order take-aways from the farm park’s outdoor catering hatches or bring their own picnics to eat. They also have to pre-book tickets online at www.lakelandmaze.co.uk and, if they are season ticket holders, book themselves in, if visiting before 3pm.
Despite having to think on their feet, the Wadsworths will be able to open the Lakeland Maze Farm Park every day throughout the summer, with the gates swinging open at 10am and shutting at 5pm. Last entry is at 3pm every day and last entry to the maze is at 3.30pm. Prices have been held at last year’s rates and families are just advised to familiarise themselves with this year’s procedures and also check on the items they should bring with them, to fully enjoy their great day out.
Graham Wadsworth says: “Despite everything, we have put measures in place that should still have our visitors grinning like Cheshire Cats when they leave us. We’re lucky to have so much outdoor space for families to enjoy and lots of fresh Cumbrian air to add to the exhilaration. We don’t know how things will pan out in future years, or whether this is the new normal, but we have a Wonderland here to explore throughout summer 2020.
“Perhaps we should all be mindful of Alice’s words, “I can’t go back to yesterday, because I was a different person then”. We have probably all changed in some way or other this year and we can’t turn the clock back. What we can do is find a new mode in which to enjoy the things that make us happy and that’s what we are offering to our 2020 visitors.”
To have a day that will leave you grinning like the Cheshire Cat, head to the website to book your visit into Lakeland Maze Farm Park, which is just a few minutes’ drive from junction 36 of the M6.
