Inspired by a meditation, devised through an unexpected collaboration, and created on a site where it fitted like the missing piece of a jigsaw: the Tipton St John labyrinth is almost a metaphor for itself. If that seems a bit complicated – welcome to the multi-layered world of labyrinths.
A labyrinth is not a maze, or an enclosed warren of tunnels. It’s a single pathway from the outside edge of a circle to its centre, laid out in a precise, geometric formation. You can’t get lost in a labyrinth; in fact, you’re not actually ‘in’ it at all, as the pattern is marked on the ground, not contained within walls and passageways.
The idea is to start at the beginning and follow the path along its circuitous route to the central point, walking slowly at a calm, steady pace. Perhaps because there are no decisions to make and no wrong directions to take, this can quiet the mind and allow deeper thoughts to come to the surface. People find the process calming and grounding. For centuries, labyrinths have been used in religious practices, with the route symbolising the journey of life, or a spiritual pilgrimage. One of the most famous is laid out in the floor of Chartres cathedral, and many other cathedrals also have them. Today they are being created in places where people experience stress and difficult emotions, including hospices and prisons, where they have therapeutic benefits.
The labyrinth in Tipton St John, near Sidmouth in Devon, was created in a corner of the village’s public playing field by local resident Lisette Johnston, her husband Clinton and a brilliant labyrinth designer/engineer, Paul Burton, who Lisette found on Facebook. It was mapped out, marked and mowed into the grass in March this year, and has become a destination both for local walkers and for visitors from further away.
Lisette is already well known locally for her community environmental work, which was recognised by a BBC Devon Make A Difference award in 2023. During the Covid pandemic she formed a litter picking group called the Eager Beavers, who went on to set up a community garden in a corner of Tipton St John playing field. They also monitor the water quality in the river Otter, and have built a raised boardwalk through nearby woodland. However, the labyrinth was something Lisette came up with herself, as she explained when we walked it together soon after its creation.
Actually it’s not so much a walk as a gentle guided stroll of about half a mile in total, from the outside to the centre and back again. The marked pathways take you curving towards the centre, then doubling back to the outer perimeter; following a path in one direction and then turning 180 degrees to tread alongside the way you’ve just come. You appear to be heading towards the finishing point, then find yourself being diverted away in an unexpected direction. You know you’re never far from the centre, but you can’t see how to reach it – until you get there.
The metaphor for life’s journey, or a process of self-discovery, is obvious, but it would be over-simplistic to see it a template for predestination; there are many different religious and spiritual interpretations, and no definite answers. Still, if it gets you thinking about these things, it’s doing its job.
A ‘lightbulb moment’ of inspiration
Appropriately for a mystical symbol, the labyrinth came about as the result of a sudden inspiration linked to an ancient myth. About two years ago Lisette was doing a guided meditation focusing on goddess figures when the name ‘Ariadne’ popped into her head. This started a train of thought and a course of events that would take a meandering path, but would eventually lead to this new and unusual feature in Tipton playing field.
Strictly speaking, Ariadne was only a minor Greek goddess – the myth has it that she was born human but later became immortal through her marriage to the god Dionysus. But she’s mainly associated with the story of how she enabled the Athenian hero Theseus to find his way out of the labyrinth (this one really was a kind of maze) on the island of Crete after he had killed its prisoner, the Minotaur. The monster had been installed there by King Minos, who regularly sacrificed young men and women to the beast in retribution for the killing of his son.
“It was very much a lightbulb moment, and it did start my journey on finding labyrinths and hoping to then create one myself,” said Lisette. “Once I had learnt more about Ariadne, I then set about finding local labyrinths and realised that there are actually very few and most are not accessible to the public.
“The first one I visited was in Seaton which was created by the Spiral Centre and it is breathtaking; set on the coast with views across the sea to Beer. Walking it I felt so calm, it was beautiful just walking back and forth, not really thinking about anything in particular, just focussing on the here and now.”
“After that I went to another in Sourton on Dartmoor, which strangely I had cycled past before as it is next the Granite Way; it was much smaller, and set in a churchyard, but just as lovely in its own way. I remember the mist was settling in around me as I walked and it made the experience even more magical.
“As you imagine, by now I was getting hooked) but there were so few other labyrinths about to try. If I was on a long drive somewhere I’d check on the labyrinth map to see if there were any on my way that I could visit. It was then that I thought maybe I should make my own, but where and how?”
Lisette is a member of the village playing field committee, so she looked at the field as a possible site. Much of the ground is taken up by football and cricket pitches, but there was an unused area to the north-west, facing the River Otter. For some reason a bench had already been installed a few years ago, facing away from the sports pitches and towards the river – as if in anticipation of something yet to be put in place there. Could the labyrinth be what was missing?
Lines in the sand
Seeking advice on how to actually plan and mark out a labyrinth on a grassy playing field, Lisette met up with Christina Bows, the founder of the Spiral Centre and designer of Seaton labyrinth. She also posted on various websites asking for suggestions. But then, scrolling on Facebook, she came across some stunning photos of labyrinths raked into the sand of beaches in Exmouth – beautiful, geometrically precise patterns, taking hours to produce, only to be erased by the incoming tide. She contacted the creator, Paul Burton, and arranged for him to visit the Tipton site.
Paul, a semi-retired heating engineer who lives in East Devon, had been designing and making labyrinths for a few years.
“I started doing sand art back in 2012 – I did the Olympic rings in the sand,” he said. “I enjoyed that and it got a good response, and then I started doing geometric patterns.
“I found people interacted with those to a certain degree, but then I started doing the labyrinths, they were nice to look at and people really did interact with that.
“The first one I did was the Chartres labyrinth. I looked at that one for ages and thought it was too complicated, but it kept coming back into my mind – I wanted to do it, and started looking into how. I realised it’s actually quite simple if I draw the rings first, there’s a method of drawing it.”
‘Simple’ may not be the exact word, but Paul cracked it, and recreated the Chartres Labyrinth on Exmouth Beach for the Quakers in July 2022.
After meeting Lisette and viewing the Tipton site, he was happy to take up the challenge of designing the Tipton labyrinth, which he thought could be simply mown into the grass. This would mean there was no cost involved and no need for any permanent markings or structures on the field. Lisette put the idea to the playing field committee in February this year, and they agreed.
Lisette said: “After having been considering this for a year, all of a sudden it was all coming together. Paul’s design, 27 metres in diameter, fitted perfectly into the space; there is only one bench facing away from the football/cricket pitch and this would look directly onto the labyrinth, it was as if it was always meant to be.”
Paul said: “This design has a shorter path so people don’t get bored doing it – the Chartres labyrinth is a very long walk, there are 11 paths and it’s a bit tight for people passing. This one, you can get wheelchairs along the paths, and I’ve seen people pushing pushchairs through it.”
How to draw a perfect labyrinth
The actual mapping out of a labyrinth design follows the same principle as the creation of a crop circle: simple tools, but a very precise process.
“You start with a peg in the middle and then use a long surveyor’s tape measure, stretch it from the centre to outside, and then mark out each path,” said Paul. The peg in the middle and the piece of string will produce a perfect circle, it’s just a case of repeating that. For the straight lines it’s a string pulled like a builder’s line. You just have to be very careful with the measurements.”
Once the pathways had been mapped out, they were made by carefully mowing them into the grass and flattening what was left with a heavy roller, leaving clearly defined unmown lines for the edgings. This was done by Lisette, Paul and Clinton over a six-day period in March.
“It did rain at times, but we were very lucky with the weather overall,” said Lisette. “The exactness of it all is totally down to Paul, he is so precise with his measurements, checking and checking, then marking before we would mow. It was hard work but worth every second, and now it’s done we still have to mow regularly to maintain it, but this in itself is quite meditative.
“When we were creating it we had many people coming over and asking what we were doing; most thought it was a maze – which it’s obviously not – and we also had suggestions of discus/shot put circles, nuclear reactors, crop circles … nevertheless all were extremely positive! I received hugs and thanks from people who said they would return when it was completed.
“Since it’s been finished I’ve made a Facebook page for the labyrinth, ‘Ariadne’s Thread’, and people have commented on there. One couple even came from Glastonbury to see it, which is exactly what I was hoping for.”
Paul Burton said: “We didn’t really know what to expect, I’d never done one on grass before and we weren’t sure how it would work out with mowing it, but it looked very good as we were doing it and we were really pleased with the way it turned out.”
Two months after its creation, the labyrinth is looking even better. The grass is growing higher, meaning more work to keep the pathways mown and flattened, but the edgings are standing out much more clearly. This is particularly noticeable during the evenings, when the sun is low on the horizon and the longer grass casts darker shadows. The pattern of the labyrinth comes into clear focus, with the light-streaked sky as a glorious, serene backdrop.
Lisette said: “I try to get down to the labyrinth when I am not working. I think for me it is that opportunity to switch off, to be outside, to be present. I love the fact it is on my doorstep, that it is accessible to everyone, and it’s flat. I have seen children running around it, and then just people walking back and forth in contemplation. How fantastic is that?”
