Mill Meadows maze idea dubbed ‘lunacy’ - Henley Standard

Mill Meadows maze idea dubbed ‘lunacy’

A MAZE could be created in Mill Meadows in Henley. It would have waist-high hedges and notice boards with information about the meadows, which are popular with visitors, and other places of interest in town.

On Tuesday, members of the town council’s recreation and amenities committee agreed to investigate the proposal and consider reinstating the putting green. Councillor Elizabeth Hodgkin called the maze a “lovely idea”.

“This could be one thought for celebrating the Queen’s jubilee,” she said.

But Councillor Barry Wood said the maze would just be a case of “filling spaces” and claimed that the council had previously used Mill Meadows for “dumping things”.

He said: “A maze is lunacy — it would be blocking an open space. I would like to see more open space and keep the ambience of Mill Meadows.”


Cllr Hodgkin responded: “The maze would not be built on the meadow but on a more feasible area.

“This particular space has been very difficult for us. We have tried a number of things such as a putting green there but it didn’t go well. Then we tried a picnic area but that didn’t go well either.

“I propose carrying out further investigation because it is worthy of it.”

Her proposal was seconded by Mayor Jeni Wood and passed by three votes to one with one abstention.

An earlier proposal to put a maze in Marsh Meadows was rejected by town councillors following an objection from Paul Mainds, chief executive of the River and Rowing Museum, and because it was an inappropriate location.

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Playing in dirt is good for kids, navigate maze faster than control group

Playing in dirt is good for kids

Smarter, less anxious: study; Outdoor learning experiences and school gardens help students relax and learn better, researchers suggest

By SHARON KIRKEY, Canwest News Service May 25, 2010 4:04 AM

Parents, here's another reason for your kids to play outdoors in the dirt: It might make them smarter.

And, as a side benefit, dirt appears to be a natural anti-anxiety drug, but without the side effects.

Mice exposed to a bacterium found in soil navigated a maze twice as fast, and with less anxiety, as control mice, in studies presented yesterday at the 110th general meeting of the American Society for Microbiology in San Diego.

The researchers say we've become so urbanized we risk losing a connection with an organism in nature that may actually be beneficial to humans.

Dr. Dorothy Matthews became intrigued by Mycobacterium vaccae - a natural soil microbe - in 2007, when British scientists published a study showing that when mice were injected with a heat-killed version of the organism, it stimulated neurons in the brainstem to start producing serotonin.

"Serotonin is a molecule that has a number of different effects, but one of them is modulating mood and decreasing anxiety," says Matthews, an associate professor of biology at The Sage Colleges in Troy, NY.

Serotonin also plays a role in learning. "If you're nervous, if you're frightened, you just can't think straight," Matthews said. She wondered, could M. vaccae have an effect on learning in mice?

The bacteria-exposed mice consistently ran the maze twice as fast as non-exposed mice. They also showed fewer anxiety behaviours - less freezing, wall-climbing, stopping and grooming, returning to the start, or defecation.

After the bacteria were removed, the mice started running the mazes slower than they did when they were ingesting the bacteria. "They experienced a kind of serotonin withdrawal," Matthews said. They were still faster than the controls, on average, an effect that lasted for another month of testing.

Matthews says people are exposed to M. vaccae just by virtue of being outdoors. "It's only been the last 100 years or so that we've become more urbanized and are eating our foods in a different way."

We no longer eat foods that we grow or gather ourselves, she says - foods that haven't been "washed multiple times, and dunked in hot water, or processed or grown with pesticides."

Making time in school curriculums for children to learn outdoors might decrease their anxiety and improve their ability to learn new tasks, she says.

"There's a movement now in some schools to actually have gardens that are part of the school experience."

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Maze Kong by Yonatan Frimer 2006

Maze Kong - Created by Yonatan Frimer