Remembering Mavis Batey: Codebreaker Turned Landscape Historian and Garden Designer

"We had to cut our way into it.
It was all overgrown, and garden ornaments were buried in the grass, but I knew at once it wasn't just an ordinary derelict garden: someone had tried to say something there, I knew at once it wasn't just an ordinary derelict garden: someone had tried to say something there."

November 12, 2013

On this day, Mavis Batey died at the age of 92.

Mavis Batey is remembered for her work with the Enigma research team. Mavis broke the German Enigma code, allowing Allied forces to stage their D-Day invasion.

In 1955, Mavis and her husband settled on a farm in Surrey. It was here that Mavis began learning about landscape history.

After Surrey, the Bateys moved to Oxford and lived in a park designed by Capability Brown. The park was also home to a garden designed by William Mason in 1775.

Mavis recalled:

We lived in the agent's house, right in the middle of a Capability Brown park, but it was William Mason's garden that really got me.

We had to cut our way into it.

It was all overgrown, and garden ornaments were buried in the grass, but I knew at once it wasn't just an ordinary derelict garden: someone had tried to say something there, I knew at once it wasn't just an ordinary derelict garden: someone had tried to say something there.

It wouldn't be the last garden Mavis Batey saved.

In 1986, Mavis was honored with the Veitch Memorial Medal for her work, preserving gardens that would otherwise have been lost to time.