Randoll Coate
Encyclopedia
Gilbert Randoll Coate was a British
diplomat
, maze
designer and "labyrinthologist".
businessman, Randoll Coate was born in Lausanne
, Switzerland
. After studying at the Collège de Lausanne he won a scholarship to Oriel College, Oxford, reading French
and German
. In 1940 he was commissioned into the Intelligence Corps, using his language abilities to interrogate prisoners of war in the "London Cage
". He also took part in Operation Archery
, a commando
raid on port Vågsøy
, Norway
and helped support Greek
resistance fighters
in liberating Kalamata
.
, Leopoldville
, Rome
, The Hague
, Buenos Aires
, Stockholm
and finally Brussels
at which point he took early retirement in 1967.
s and completed over 50 new mazes in Britain and around the world. Coate's maze designs are particularly noted for their symbol
ism. Although it is rarely possible to see a large maze in plan view, Coate's designs would often incorporate hidden shapes and references of significance to the clients who had commissioned the maze.
Coate's first maze commission, The Imprint of Man, was completed in 1975 for a private garden in Gloucestershire
. The overall outline was of a giant footprint 57 m long by 29 m wide — a size calculated to match the size of a 300-m tall person, matching the height of the Eiffel Tower
. The hedge
maze, constructed from 3,000 yew bushes
, ended up too large for its intended field. Coate's solution was to extend the maze into the adjacent river, creating an artificial island
for the second toe. The intricate design incorporated 132 symbols, including numbers, signs of the zodiac
and animals, birds and fishes.
Some of his other notable mazes include;
, another enthusiastic maze designer. Shortly afterwards Coate and Fisher formed the maze design company Minotaur Designs and designed 15 mazes together between 1979 and 1989, (some with the landscape architect
Graham Burgess
in 1983 and 1984). These included:
(MVO) in 1966.
He died in Le Rouret
, near Grasse
, France on the 2 December 2005, aged 96.
United Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...
diplomat
Diplomat
A diplomat is a person appointed by a state to conduct diplomacy with another state or international organization. The main functions of diplomats revolve around the representation and protection of the interests and nationals of the sending state, as well as the promotion of information and...
, maze
Maze
A maze is a tour puzzle in the form of a complex branching passage through which the solver must find a route. In everyday speech, both maze and labyrinth denote a complex and confusing series of pathways, but technically the maze is distinguished from the labyrinth, as the labyrinth has a single...
designer and "labyrinthologist".
Early life
The son of Charles Philip Coate, an expatriateExpatriate
An expatriate is a person temporarily or permanently residing in a country and culture other than that of the person's upbringing...
businessman, Randoll Coate was born in Lausanne
Lausanne
Lausanne is a city in Romandy, the French-speaking part of Switzerland, and is the capital of the canton of Vaud. The seat of the district of Lausanne, the city is situated on the shores of Lake Geneva . It faces the French town of Évian-les-Bains, with the Jura mountains to its north-west...
, Switzerland
Switzerland
Switzerland name of one of the Swiss cantons. ; ; ; or ), in its full name the Swiss Confederation , is a federal republic consisting of 26 cantons, with Bern as the seat of the federal authorities. The country is situated in Western Europe,Or Central Europe depending on the definition....
. After studying at the Collège de Lausanne he won a scholarship to Oriel College, Oxford, reading French
French language
French is a Romance language spoken as a first language in France, the Romandy region in Switzerland, Wallonia and Brussels in Belgium, Monaco, the regions of Quebec and Acadia in Canada, and by various communities elsewhere. Second-language speakers of French are distributed throughout many parts...
and German
German language
German is a West Germanic language, related to and classified alongside English and Dutch. With an estimated 90 – 98 million native speakers, German is one of the world's major languages and is the most widely-spoken first language in the European Union....
. In 1940 he was commissioned into the Intelligence Corps, using his language abilities to interrogate prisoners of war in the "London Cage
MI19
MI19 was a division of the British Directorate of Military Intelligence, part of the War Office. In World War II it was responsible for obtaining information from enemy prisoners of war.It was originally created in December 1940 as MI9a, a sub-section of MI9...
". He also took part in Operation Archery
Operation Archery
Operation Archery, also known as the Vaagso Raid, was a British Combined Operations raid during World War II against German positions on Vaagso Island , Norway, on 27 December 1941....
, a commando
Commando
In English, the term commando means a specific kind of individual soldier or military unit. In contemporary usage, commando usually means elite light infantry and/or special operations forces units, specializing in amphibious landings, parachuting, rappelling and similar techniques, to conduct and...
raid on port Vågsøy
Vågsøy
Vågsøy is a municipality in the county of Sogn og Fjordane, Norway. It is located in the traditional district of Nordfjord. The municipality's administrative center is the town Måløy. Vågsøy is also the name of the main island in the municipality with an area of...
, Norway
Norway
Norway , officially the Kingdom of Norway, is a Nordic unitary constitutional monarchy whose territory comprises the western portion of the Scandinavian Peninsula, Jan Mayen, and the Arctic archipelago of Svalbard and Bouvet Island. Norway has a total area of and a population of about 4.9 million...
and helped support Greek
Greece
Greece , officially the Hellenic Republic , and historically Hellas or the Republic of Greece in English, is a country in southeastern Europe....
resistance fighters
Greek Resistance
The Greek Resistance is the blanket term for a number of armed and unarmed groups from across the political spectrum that resisted the Axis Occupation of Greece in the period 1941–1944, during World War II.-Origins:...
in liberating Kalamata
Kalamata
Kalamata is the second-largest city of the Peloponnese in southern Greece. The capital and chief port of the Messenia prefecture, it lies along the Nedon River at the head of the Messenian Gulf...
.
Diplomatic career
After the war, Coate joined the UK Foreign Office with diplomatic postings to Salonika, OsloOslo
Oslo is a municipality, as well as the capital and most populous city in Norway. As a municipality , it was established on 1 January 1838. Founded around 1048 by King Harald III of Norway, the city was largely destroyed by fire in 1624. The city was moved under the reign of Denmark–Norway's King...
, Leopoldville
Kinshasa
Kinshasa is the capital and largest city of the Democratic Republic of the Congo. The city is located on the Congo River....
, Rome
Rome
Rome is the capital of Italy and the country's largest and most populated city and comune, with over 2.7 million residents in . The city is located in the central-western portion of the Italian Peninsula, on the Tiber River within the Lazio region of Italy.Rome's history spans two and a half...
, The Hague
The Hague
The Hague is the capital city of the province of South Holland in the Netherlands. With a population of 500,000 inhabitants , it is the third largest city of the Netherlands, after Amsterdam and Rotterdam...
, Buenos Aires
Buenos Aires
Buenos Aires is the capital and largest city of Argentina, and the second-largest metropolitan area in South America, after São Paulo. It is located on the western shore of the estuary of the Río de la Plata, on the southeastern coast of the South American continent...
, Stockholm
Stockholm
Stockholm is the capital and the largest city of Sweden and constitutes the most populated urban area in Scandinavia. Stockholm is the most populous city in Sweden, with a population of 851,155 in the municipality , 1.37 million in the urban area , and around 2.1 million in the metropolitan area...
and finally Brussels
Brussels
Brussels , officially the Brussels Region or Brussels-Capital Region , is the capital of Belgium and the de facto capital of the European Union...
at which point he took early retirement in 1967.
Maze designer
Having had a long-standing interest in art and history, Coate took to designing mazeMaze
A maze is a tour puzzle in the form of a complex branching passage through which the solver must find a route. In everyday speech, both maze and labyrinth denote a complex and confusing series of pathways, but technically the maze is distinguished from the labyrinth, as the labyrinth has a single...
s and completed over 50 new mazes in Britain and around the world. Coate's maze designs are particularly noted for their symbol
Symbol
A symbol is something which represents an idea, a physical entity or a process but is distinct from it. The purpose of a symbol is to communicate meaning. For example, a red octagon may be a symbol for "STOP". On a map, a picture of a tent might represent a campsite. Numerals are symbols for...
ism. Although it is rarely possible to see a large maze in plan view, Coate's designs would often incorporate hidden shapes and references of significance to the clients who had commissioned the maze.
Coate's first maze commission, The Imprint of Man, was completed in 1975 for a private garden in Gloucestershire
Gloucestershire
Gloucestershire is a county in South West England. The county comprises part of the Cotswold Hills, part of the flat fertile valley of the River Severn, and the entire Forest of Dean....
. The overall outline was of a giant footprint 57 m long by 29 m wide — a size calculated to match the size of a 300-m tall person, matching the height of the Eiffel Tower
Eiffel Tower
The Eiffel Tower is a puddle iron lattice tower located on the Champ de Mars in Paris. Built in 1889, it has become both a global icon of France and one of the most recognizable structures in the world...
. The hedge
Hedge (gardening)
A hedge or hedgerow is a line of closely spaced shrubs and tree species, planted and trained in such a way as to form a barrier or to mark the boundary of an area. Hedges used to separate a road from adjoining fields or one field from another, and of sufficient age to incorporate larger trees, are...
maze, constructed from 3,000 yew bushes
Taxus baccata
Taxus baccata is a conifer native to western, central and southern Europe, northwest Africa, northern Iran and southwest Asia. It is the tree originally known as yew, though with other related trees becoming known, it may be now known as the English yew, or European yew.-Description:It is a small-...
, ended up too large for its intended field. Coate's solution was to extend the maze into the adjacent river, creating an artificial island
Artificial island
An artificial island or man-made island is an island or archipelago that has been constructed by people rather than formed by natural means...
for the second toe. The intricate design incorporated 132 symbols, including numbers, signs of the zodiac
Zodiac
In astronomy, the zodiac is a circle of twelve 30° divisions of celestial longitude which are centred upon the ecliptic: the apparent path of the Sun across the celestial sphere over the course of the year...
and animals, birds and fishes.
Some of his other notable mazes include;
- Pyramid (1977) — yew hedge maze in the form of a pyramidPyramidA pyramid is a structure whose outer surfaces are triangular and converge at a single point. The base of a pyramid can be trilateral, quadrilateral, or any polygon shape, meaning that a pyramid has at least three triangular surfaces...
at the Château de Belœil, Belgium, in which the height of the hedges increases to reach 6 m at the centre - Creation (1979) — yew hedge maze at Värmlands Säby, Sweden, for the BaronBaronBaron is a title of nobility. The word baron comes from Old French baron, itself from Old High German and Latin baro meaning " man, warrior"; it merged with cognate Old English beorn meaning "nobleman"...
ess of FalkenbergFalkenberg MunicipalityFalkenberg Municipality is a municipality in Halland County on the Swedish west coast. The town Falkenberg is the municipal seat....
, with overlapping layers of symbolism. Seen one way, the egg-shaped outline represents the Garden of EdenGarden of EdenThe Garden of Eden is in the Bible's Book of Genesis as being the place where the first man, Adam, and his wife, Eve, lived after they were created by God. Literally, the Bible speaks about a garden in Eden...
incorporating figures for Adam, EveAdam and EveAdam and Eve were, according to the Genesis creation narratives, the first human couple to inhabit Earth, created by YHWH, the God of the ancient Hebrews...
, the Serpent and the apple. Seen another way, the hedge outlines form the shape of the horned MinotaurMinotaurIn Greek mythology, the Minotaur , as the Greeks imagined him, was a creature with the head of a bull on the body of a man or, as described by Roman poet Ovid, "part man and part bull"...
of the original MinoanMinoan civilizationThe Minoan civilization was a Bronze Age civilization that arose on the island of Crete and flourished from approximately the 27th century BC to the 15th century BC. It was rediscovered at the beginning of the 20th century through the work of the British archaeologist Arthur Evans...
labyrinthLabyrinthIn Greek mythology, the Labyrinth was an elaborate structure designed and built by the legendary artificer Daedalus for King Minos of Crete at Knossos...
.
Minotaur Designs
In 1979, Coate was introduced to Adrian FisherAdrian Fisher
Adrian Fisher is internationally recognised as one of the world's leading maze designers. His mazes can be found in all corners of the globe....
, another enthusiastic maze designer. Shortly afterwards Coate and Fisher formed the maze design company Minotaur Designs and designed 15 mazes together between 1979 and 1989, (some with the landscape architect
Landscape architect
A landscape architect is a person involved in the planning, design and sometimes direction of a landscape, garden, or distinct space. The professional practice is known as landscape architecture....
Graham Burgess
Graham Burgess
Graham K. Burgess is an English FIDE Master of chess and a noted writer and trainer. He became a FIDE Master at the age of twenty. He attended Birkdale High School in Southport, Merseyside. In 1989 he graduated from the University of Cambridge with a degree in mathematics...
in 1983 and 1984). These included:
- Archbishop's Maze (1980) — a brick path and turf mazeTurf mazeHistorically, a turf maze is a labyrinth made by cutting a convoluted path into a level area of short grass, turf or lawn. Some had names such as Mizmaze, Troy Town, The Walls of Troy, Julian's Bower, or Shepherd's Race...
at Greys CourtGreys CourtGreys Court is a Tudor country house and associated gardens, located at , at the southern end of the Chiltern Hills at Rotherfield Greys, near Henley-on-Thames in the English county of Oxfordshire. It is owned by the National Trust and is open to the public....
, England, incorporating ChristianChristianA Christian is a person who adheres to Christianity, an Abrahamic, monotheistic religion based on the life and teachings of Jesus of Nazareth as recorded in the Canonical gospels and the letters of the New Testament...
symbolism to commemorate the maze metaphor that Robert RuncieRobert RuncieRobert Alexander Kennedy Runcie, Baron Runcie, PC, MC was Archbishop of Canterbury from 1980 to 1991.-Early life:...
mentioned in his enthronement address on becoming Archbishop of CanterburyArchbishop of CanterburyThe Archbishop of Canterbury is the senior bishop and principal leader of the Church of England, the symbolic head of the worldwide Anglican Communion, and the diocesan bishop of the Diocese of Canterbury. In his role as head of the Anglican Communion, the archbishop leads the third largest group... - Beatles Maze (1984) — brick path and water-channel maze at the first National Garden FestivalNational Garden FestivalThe National Garden Festivals were part of the cultural regeneration of large areas of derelict land in Britain's industrial districts during the 1980s and early 1990s. Five were held in total - one every two years, each in a different town or city - after the idea was pushed by environment...
, LiverpoolLiverpoolLiverpool is a city and metropolitan borough of Merseyside, England, along the eastern side of the Mersey Estuary. It was founded as a borough in 1207 and was granted city status in 1880...
, England, featuring an 18-ton, 15.5-m long sculpture of a yellow submarine at its centre, and with an outline in the shape of an apple, in reference to The BeatlesThe BeatlesThe Beatles were an English rock band, active throughout the 1960s and one of the most commercially successful and critically acclaimed acts in the history of popular music. Formed in Liverpool, by 1962 the group consisted of John Lennon , Paul McCartney , George Harrison and Ringo Starr...
' Apple CorpsApple CorpsApple Corps Ltd. is a multi-armed multimedia corporation founded in January 1968 by the members of The Beatles to replace their earlier company and to form a conglomerate. Its name is a pun. Its chief division is Apple Records, which was launched in the same year...
record labelRecord labelIn the music industry, a record label is a brand and a trademark associated with the marketing of music recordings and music videos. Most commonly, a record label is the company that manages such brands and trademarks, coordinates the production, manufacture, distribution, marketing and promotion,... - Bath Festival Maze (1984) — a stone path in Beazer Gardens near the Pulteney BridgePulteney BridgePulteney Bridge is a bridge that crosses the River Avon, in Bath, England. It was completed in 1773 and is designated by English Heritage as a grade I listed building....
, Bath, England, celebrating the city of Bath with motifs based on Georgian fanlightFanlightA fanlight is a window, semicircular or semi-elliptical in shape, with glazing bars or tracery sets radiating out like an open fan, It is placed over another window or a doorway. and is sometimes hinged to a transom. The bars in the fixed glazed window spread out in the manner a sunburst...
s, arches from Isambard Kingdom BrunelIsambard Kingdom BrunelIsambard Kingdom Brunel, FRS , was a British civil engineer who built bridges and dockyards including the construction of the first major British railway, the Great Western Railway; a series of steamships, including the first propeller-driven transatlantic steamship; and numerous important bridges...
's railway and a RomanAncient RomeAncient Rome was a thriving civilization that grew on the Italian Peninsula as early as the 8th century BC. Located along the Mediterranean Sea and centered on the city of Rome, it expanded to one of the largest empires in the ancient world....
-inspired mosaicMosaicMosaic is the art of creating images with an assemblage of small pieces of colored glass, stone, or other materials. It may be a technique of decorative art, an aspect of interior decoration, or of cultural and spiritual significance as in a cathedral...
circle at its centre - Marlborough Maze (1988) — a yew hedge maze at Blenheim PalaceBlenheim PalaceBlenheim Palace is a monumental country house situated in Woodstock, Oxfordshire, England, residence of the dukes of Marlborough. It is the only non-royal non-episcopal country house in England to hold the title of palace. The palace, one of England's largest houses, was built between...
for the Duke of Marlborough and based on a stone carving by Grinling GibbonsGrinling GibbonsGrinling Gibbons was an English sculptor and wood carver known for his work in England, including St Paul's Cathedral, Blenheim Palace and Hampton Court Palace. He was born and educated in Holland where his father was a merchant...
representing the "Panoply of Victory", with a symbolism based on cannonCannonA cannon is any piece of artillery that uses gunpowder or other usually explosive-based propellents to launch a projectile. Cannon vary in caliber, range, mobility, rate of fire, angle of fire, and firepower; different forms of cannon combine and balance these attributes in varying degrees,...
s, banners and trumpets.
Other mazes
- Sun Maze and Lunar Labyrinth (1996) — LongleatLongleatLongleat is an English stately home, currently the seat of the Marquesses of Bath, adjacent to the village of Horningsham and near the towns of Warminster in Wiltshire and Frome in Somerset. It is noted for its Elizabethan country house, maze, landscaped parkland and safari park. The house is set...
, near Bath, England, for the Marquess of BathMarquess of BathMarquess of Bath is a title in the Peerage of Great Britain. It was created in 1789 for Thomas Thynne, 3rd Viscount Weymouth. The Thynne family descends from the soldier and courtier Sir John Thynne , who constructed Longleat House between 1567 and 1579...
(who has another four mazes in the grounds of the house) - Lappa Valley Railway Maze — yew hedge at the Lappa Valley Steam RailwayLappa Valley Steam RailwayThe Lappa Valley Steam Railway is a minimum gauge railway located near Newquay in Cornwall. The railway functions as a tourist attraction, running from Benny Halt to East Wheal Rose , where there is a leisure area.-Treffry's Tramway:...
, CornwallCornwallCornwall is a unitary authority and ceremonial county of England, within the United Kingdom. It is bordered to the north and west by the Celtic Sea, to the south by the English Channel, and to the east by the county of Devon, over the River Tamar. Cornwall has a population of , and covers an area of...
, England, shaped like an early steam locomotiveSteam locomotiveA steam locomotive is a railway locomotive that produces its power through a steam engine. These locomotives are fueled by burning some combustible material, usually coal, wood or oil, to produce steam in a boiler, which drives the steam engine... - El laberinto de Borges (Borges Memorial Maze) — San Rafael, MendozaSan Rafael, MendozaSan Rafael is a city in the southern region of the Mendoza Province, Argentina. With more than 170,000 inhabitants , it is the largest city and the seat of San Rafael Department....
, ArgentinaArgentinaArgentina , officially the Argentine Republic , is the second largest country in South America by land area, after Brazil. It is constituted as a federation of 23 provinces and an autonomous city, Buenos Aires...
, box hedge maze, measuring 95 m by 65 m, in memory of the writer Jorge Luis BorgesJorge Luis BorgesJorge Francisco Isidoro Luis Borges Acevedo , known as Jorge Luis Borges , was an Argentine writer, essayist, poet and translator born in Buenos Aires. In 1914 his family moved to Switzerland where he attended school, receiving his baccalauréat from the Collège de Genève in 1918. The family...
(a personal friend of Coate's), inspired by his short story "El Jardín de senderos que se bifurcanThe Garden of Forking Paths"The Garden of Forking Paths" is a 1941 short story by Argentine writer and poet Jorge Luis Borges. It is the title story in the collection El jardín de senderos que se bifurcan , which was republished in its entirety in Ficciones in 1944...
" (EnglishEnglish languageEnglish is a West Germanic language that arose in the Anglo-Saxon kingdoms of England and spread into what was to become south-east Scotland under the influence of the Anglian medieval kingdom of Northumbria...
: "The Garden of Forking Paths"). Shaped like an open book, the design incorporates, in BrailleBrailleThe Braille system is a method that is widely used by blind people to read and write, and was the first digital form of writing.Braille was devised in 1825 by Louis Braille, a blind Frenchman. Each Braille character, or cell, is made up of six dot positions, arranged in a rectangle containing two...
, a quotation from the blind writer, that a book and a labyrinth are "one and the same". - Alice in Wonderland Maze 1991, Dorset
- Ziggurat Maze Moray, Scotland
- Ariel Maze Jersey
- Pommerie Maze Shropshire
Family life
In 1955, Coate married the painter, Pamela Dugdale Moore, with whom he raised two daughters. He was also made a Chevalier of the Ordre de Léopold in 1965 and appointed a Member of the Royal Victorian OrderRoyal Victorian Order
The Royal Victorian Order is a dynastic order of knighthood and a house order of chivalry recognising distinguished personal service to the order's Sovereign, the reigning monarch of the Commonwealth realms, any members of her family, or any of her viceroys...
(MVO) in 1966.
He died in Le Rouret
Le Rouret
Le Rouret is a commune in the Alpes-Maritimes department in southeastern France.-Geography:Le Rouret is located from Grasse, from Cannes and the Mediterranean coast, from Nice and from Monaco...
, near Grasse
Grasse
-See also:*Route Napoléon*Ancient Diocese of Grasse*Communes of the Alpes-Maritimes department-External links:*...
, France on the 2 December 2005, aged 96.
External links
- Mazemaker.com — The website of Adrian Fisher's current maze design company incorporates a portfolio of past projects, including photographs and descriptions of mazes created in partnership with Coate