According to Arthur Mee's book Lincolnshire the maze was cut by monks in the 12th century, but White's Lincolnshire Directory of 1872 maintains that it was constructed in Roman times as part of a game. Others think that while the feature is of Roman origin, it was later used by the Medieval Church for some sort of penitential purposes and only reverted to its former use as an amusement or diversion, after the Reformation.
Firm documentary evidence of its existence only seems to date from 1697 however, when it was noticed, on his travels, by the Yorkshire antiquary Abraham de la Pryme.
Alkborough is an English village of about 450 people in North Lincolnshire, located in an isolated but attractive position near the northern end of the Cliff range of hills overlooking the point called Trent Falls, where the Rivers Trent and Ouse join to form the River Humber.
In case the maze becomes overgrown or otherwise indistinct, its pattern is recorded, in a 19th century stained glass church window, on the floor of the church porch and also on the gravestone of James Goulton Constable, which is in Alkborough cemetery.
Alkborough Flats is an area of low-lying arable farmland of nearly 4 km² situated at the "Confluence of the Rivers" where the Rivers Trent and Ouse join to form the Humber estuary.
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