Gardeners at Anne Boleyn’s childhood home chop back 5km of hedging

Nearly 125,000 people have made their way through the yew maze stretching three quarters of a mile in length at Hever Castle and Gardens this summer.

A gardener at Hever Castle tends to the bushes that makes up the120-year-old maze (Gareth Fuller/PA) (PA Wire)

Gardeners at Anne Boleyn’s childhood home have begun the “mammoth task” of trimming back five kilometres of hedging including an 120-year-old yew maze as children head back to school.

Nearly 125,000 people have made their way through the maze stretching three quarters of a mile in length at Hever Castle and Gardens this summer.

The estate’s gardening team of 10 got to work on Tuesday to keep the grounds near Edenbridge, in Kent, in shape.

Head gardener Neil Miller said: “We wait for the schools to go back before we tackle the yew maze.

“Birds typically nest between March and August so we wait until we know there are no nests before beginning the mammoth task of trimming the hedges.”

According to a castle spokesperson, American billionaire William Waldorf Astor began the garden’s transformation by employing more than 1,000 men between 1904 and 1908.

This included creating a maze out of 1,000 yew trees imported from the Netherlands.

Hever Castle and Gardens also features a giant yew chess set after Mr Astor gained inspiration from one at the British Museum used during the reign of King Henry VIII.