The Historic Gardens of Oxford & Cambridge

by Mavis Batey, Hugh Palmer (Photographer)

The college gardens of Oxford and Cambridge have survived to form a unique part of gardening history and present a collegiate layout of cloisters, quadrangles, courts and walks unrivalled in the world. This is an informative guide to those gardens and also offers a history of gardening through the ages, covering a 700-year period, from the development of the medieval monastery through to the landscape garden of today. It describes the plants to be found and recounts the story of how architects, painters, poets and philosophers as important as Wren, Hawksmoor, Addison, Jekyll, Ruskin, Morris and Lutyens were all instrumental in helping create these historic gardens. Mavis Batey has written many articles and publications including "Alice's Adventures in Oxford". She designs and restores gardens. Hugh Palmer's photographs have appeared in "Country Life", "Interiors", "Homes & Gardens" and other publications.

192 pages, Hardcover

First published March 1, 1989

About the author

Mavis Lilian Batey, MBE (née Lever; 5 May 1921 – 12 November 2013), was a British code-breaker during World War II. She was one of the leading female codebreakers at Bletchley Park.

She later became a historian of gardening, who campaigned to save historic parks and gardens, and an author. Batey was awarded the Veitch Memorial Medal in 1985, and made a Member of the Order of the British Empire (MBE) in 1987, in both cases for her work on the conservation of gardens.

source: Amazon