Beatrix Havergal was our ‘Lady Gardener’. She was responsible for the gardens and the grounds here at Cold Ash and also played the ‘cello in the school orchestra. In the School Magazine (Summer 1927) it says that Miss Havergal completed two new grass courts and these were suitably named after her ‘Havergal Courts’. These tennis courts are located behind what is now AGS House.

Beatrix began working in horticulture after leaving school in 1916. It is thought she attended a school for female horticulturalists in Thatcham called the Henwick Fruit and Flower Farm (established in 1907 by Miss Mary Peers and Miss Lily Hughes-Jones). Beatrix graduated in 1920 with the Royal Horticultural Society’s Certificate with

Honours. Miss Willis asked her to take charge of the gardens at Downe House. It is thought that Miss Willis inspired her to move into education.

Beatrix left Downe House to set up a school of gardening for women with Avice Sanders, who also worked here at Downe House, she taught Domestic Science. They first worked from Pusey House near Faringdon in Oxfordshire and then moved on to establish the Waterperry Horticultural School for Lady Gardeners. There gardens are still there at Waterperry House, near Wheatley in Oxfordshire. Beatrix was awarded the MBE in 1960. She collected a number of other honours in her life and was well known for her Royal Sovereign strawberries.

Avice died in 1970, and a year later, Beatrix sold the estate though she stayed on, living in a small cottage in the grounds. She is buried in the grounds of St Mary’s Church in Waterperry, though she died when visiting her brother in Woolton Hill.

Roald Dahl wrote to Quentin Blake describing how he wishes his character Miss Trunchball should look. He said she should be based on Beatrix Havergal. They may have known each other through their love of horticulture, though Dahl’s daughter Tessa attended Downe House.