Recognised as the finest watercolourist of his day along with Charles Harmony Harrison. Batchelder worked in a Norwich, and later Yarmouth, photography business but longed to express himself with pencil and brush. As a child he was seen sketching incessantly, and when older he decorated the scenery used by his showman father, who toured with a diorama in which he exhibited panoramas and dissolving views. But this meant his trainning was oftern disrupted untill the family returned to Norwich at the end of school years.
It wasn't till the age of 31 that he felt he could support a growing household by painting. He bought a small boat named Smudge and launched himself as a recorder of Broadland. He later joined the Norfolk Riffle Volunteers along with this artistic ally C.H. Harrison and gained distinction as a marksman.