Patrick Smith who graduated in 2025 has won the 2025 Mavis Batey Essay Prize from The Gardens Trust, the most prestigious essay prize in the discipline. Patrick says:
I am honoured to receive this prize, especially given Batey’s tireless commitment to the preservation of parks and gardens. The subject of my essay – John Claudius Loudon – also, in the early 19th century, defended common land and called for the establishment of public parks. I hope that my analysis of his prescient work might contribute to our understanding of parks’ reformist origins, and that others may be inspired by Loudon’s rationality, optimism and far-sightedness.