Hilton, Cambridgeshire

Hilton
Hilton Turf Maze
Hilton is located in Cambridgeshire Hilton  Hilton shown within Cambridgeshire
OS grid reference	TL289661
Shire county	Cambridgeshire
Region	East
Country	England
Sovereign state	United Kingdom
Post town	HUNTINGDON
Postcode district	PE28
Police	Cambridgeshire
Fire	Cambridgeshire
Ambulance	East of England
EU Parliament	East of England
List of places UK England Cambridgeshire

Hilton is a village in present-day Cambridgeshire, East Anglia, England, about 11 miles (18 km) northwest of Cambridge. The parish adjoins the parishes of Elsworth, Fenstanton, Hemingford Abbots, Hemingford Grey, Papworth Everard and Papworth St Agnes. The parish church is dedicated to St Mary Magdalene and has a peal of six bells. Historically the village was in Huntingdonshire for over a thousand years until 1974.

A fragment of a wall painting on plaster, made for Captain Sparrow (1601–1651), at Park Farm, Hilton, probably around the time of his marriage in 1633, is now in the Victoria & Albert Museum, London. The fragment depicts two figures representing the senses of Taste and Sight and was donated by David Garnett and his wife Angelica Bell of Hilton Hall, who were members of the Bloomsbury Group.

Turf maze

On the village green is a turf maze (or labyrinth) some 55 ft (16.5 m) in diameter, and one of only eight remaining in England. A stone pillar at its centre records that the maze was cut by William Sparrow (1641–1729) in 1660. The Latin inscriptions, above and below a coat of arms (presumably Sparrow's), reads:

"Sic transit gloria mundi" ("Thus the glory of the world passes away") "Gvlielmvs Sparrow, Gen., natvs ano. 1641. Aetatis svi 88 qvamdo obiit, hos gyros fornavit anno 1660" ("William Sparrow, Gentleman, born in the year 1641. Aged 88 when he died, he formed these circles in the year 1660").

The English inscription reads "William Sparrow departed this life the 25th August, Anno Domini 1729, aged 88 years".

Latin inscription on the central pillar of Hilton turf maze

The design of the maze is similar to the famous pavement labyrinth at Chartres Cathedral, laid in 1235. An illustration by W.H. Matthews in his "Mazes and Labyrinths" (1922) shows several paths leading to the central circle: the erection of the pillar at its centre, some 69 years after it had been cut, could have confused the design, or the paths may simply have become overgrown. Recent maintenance has made the maze conform to the standard medieval pattern.

It has been suggested that the young Sparrow might have recut the maze on the site of an earlier one which had become indistinct from lack of maintenance. There is no evidence to support this theory, but the dating of turf mazes is notoriously difficult. A turf maze of similar design, in the nearby village of Comberton, was called "the Mazles". It no longer exists.

External links

• Hilton Official Village Web Site
• The Hilton wall painting of Taste and Sight (if this link fails, try [1] and search for "Hilton wall painting")
• W.H. Matthews, "Mazes and Labyrinths" (1922) online version of this classic book
• Labyrinthos Jeff Saward's website
• Labyrinth Society