Whitesmith maze

In the 1990s, Peter Gunner, a committed Christian, was inspired by his faith to plant a maze on his farm near Whitesmith, East Sussex.[1] He selected a passage from his favourite verse from the Bible: the 14th chapter of the Gospel of John.[2][1] In this verse, Jesus responds to Thomas the Apostle's question: "How can we know the way?" with "I am the way, the truth and the life". Gunner designed the maze on a computer, substituting the at sign (@) for the word "the" and prefacing the quote with Jesus' name.[1] Gunner marked out the design in the field using a tape measure and string.[2] He first mowed the design into the grass before planting, with the assistance of volunteers, thousands of willow trees.[1] His first attempt failed, as it became overgrown with thistles, so he pulled up the trees and started afresh.[2]

The Whitesmith maze is not a true maze, as people can walk freely between the individual letters of the quotations.[3] Gunner also installed posts in the maze, carrying quotations from other biblical verses.[2] He stated that he intended people to get lost in the maze as a metaphor, and has said that "the maze is a lot like life: no one knows what it looks like from above. You can wander through life confused, when in fact it makes sense from a different perspective".[4][2] He opens the maze up regularly for his friends and fellow churchgoers.[2] Gunner has also written the word "rejoice" on the top of his barn using coloured tiles.[2]

Despite a public footpath running alongside the site of the maze, it initially attracted little attention.[1][2] Gunner said that only one passer-by, an autistic girl, recognised that the trees formed letters.[2] It was spotted by some microlight pilots and in 2005 Gunner was given a photograph of the maze taken from a helicopter by a neighbour who was a police officer.[1] The maze attracted media attention in 2013 when it was spotted by users of Google Earth.[2] In reviewing the aerial photography Gunner spotted that the letter "a" in "am" was slightly skewed, as was the top of the "J" in "Jesus".[2] He said that "every time I see a plane go over I look at it and say a little prayer ... I hope that somebody sees it and feels inspired by it."[1]