Get lost.

Following the maze and jungle garden, the Campanula garden was created with a view to concentrating more specifically on one plant genus. In view of the fact that campanulas grow naturally in the walls at Burton Agnes Hall, and offer such a wide variety of shapes and colours, they seemed the perfect choice.

A construction of bricks was created (first designed in Lego!) to provide the different species with their individual growing areas and the cool root runs that they like. The Campanula garden has grown into a magnificent collection, many of which can now be purchased as seeds from the Home and Garden Shop.

The vegetable garden or 'potager' was designed by Mrs Susan Cunliffe-Lister as both a decorative and functional addition to the walled garden. The beds were kept no wider than 1.5 metres to enable them to be worked from by the paths and were divided into four blocks with four beds in each. These were then divided into four again to enable a four year rotation plan.

Year One: Roots. Year Two: Greens. Year Three: Beans, peas, onions, leeks. Year Four: Salads, marrows, sweet corn, cutting flowers.

The idea behind the creation of the jungle garden came from the sense of fun and freedom that is often felt in being able to just 'get lost' in a garden. The maze already offered a very structured way of 'getting lost', so as a contrast the jungle garden gives the opportunity for visitors to 'get lost' in a completely free and unstructured way.

As well as the large variety of jungle plants, we felt the jungle garden required water and what better way than our very own mini jungle elephant. 'Agnes' as she is known, was made by a talented lead worker and fountain maker, David Marston, from nearby Nafferton, and can be found happily squirting water through out the summer months at Burton Agnes.

The maze, situated in the top northeast corner of the walled garden, was planted in the spring of 1990 and seemed an obvious choice of interest for the walled garden due to its Elizabethan origins. Over 700 yew bushes were used to build the maze and despite yew being regarded as a slow plant to develop it actually grew at a rate of one foot per year.

The only caution to be noted when ordering yew bushes, as we found to our own amusement, is that 'yew' is not to be confused with 'ewe'. On the morning that our yew bushes were due to be delivered the nursery who supplied the plants rang the office to say that they would be delivering them that afternoon. The message was passed on to the farm men who we later discovered were actually waiting to unload 700 ewes and thought we had suddenly decided to go in for sheep farming in a big way!

Visitors to the garden, young and old enjoy getting lost in the maze and to make ours more interesting we have included a riddle for visitors to solve. There are a number of small gardens on the way into the centre which provide the clues and the riddle is a well known saying.

The walled garden has fruit, vegetables and exotic plants as well as giant board games and a maze! Visitors to the garden, young and old enjoy getting lost in the maze.

To the north of the house is the woodland walk, about a mile long. This was planted to form an arboretum walk, along with a new wood adjoining in 1998, with gifts of trees following a party to commemorate the Hall's 400th centenary and Simon Cunliffe-Lister's 21st birthday. Approximate strolling time - 20 minutes.

There's a fabulous woodland adventure playground in which to let off steam, with a mysterious 'wise old man' tower with corkscrew slide, double zip wire and nine swings amongst other kit.

In February the gardens are open to view a blanket of snowdrops in the Woodland.

Burton Agnes Hall plays host to a variety of annual events, such as the Jazz & Blues festival, an Easter Egg Hunt, a Classic Car Rally, a Gardeners' Fair, and a Autumn Fair. In November and December the family decorates the Hall for Christmas, and in February the gardens are open to view a blanket of snowdrops in the Woodland.