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Blue Coat School

Astoness

Astoness

TRUE BRUMMIE MODERATOR
Staff member
can anyone please shed light as to what is or what was the blue coach school. i have never heard of it but it cropped up in family conversation. many thanks wales.
 
Wales, there are also a number of threads on this forum about the schools and pic's too.
Search 'Blue Coat' in search box

Good luck.

Pom
 
hi pom. i will check with mom in a bit but she did say the blue coach school she thought was a school for the orphaned and underprivaliged. as the blue coat school is a private prep one i cant see it being that and as it may have some bearing on and ancester i will have to delve a bit further. will have a look at the thread though. thanks again.
 
Hello Wales,
the BLUE COAT SCHOOL was alongside St Phillips Churchyard, My GGG/Grandmother was able to place 3 or more of her children & then
grandchildren into this school. The children had to come from parents who
had married ! The parent/guardian needed to go cap in hand to find a
sponser for the child. The Archives in B'ham library have the forms that
were written for each accepted child...they make most interesting
reading & it is BRILLIANT when you find one for a relative !!!
Regards,
Margaret.
 
Yes that was right at first it was for the poor kids...
https://forum.birminghamhistory.co.uk/showthread.php?t=9516&highlight=Blue+Coat

... and from Darhgue's History of Birmingham:

"* B2 City Centre St Philips Place
The Blue Coat School/ Bluecoat School was founded 1722 by the first rector of St Philip’s William Higgs, built 1724 to educate children aged 9-14 of poor families; 32 boys and 20 girls were clothed, fed and educated. The school was enlarged 1749, 1777, 1782, and largely rebuilt 1794 by John Rawsthorne as a 4-storey neo-classical building; from 1728 64 children attended, from 1783 97, 1816 158. A master taught children reading, writing and arithmetic, a mistress taught girls needlework and housework; in 1866 there was a headmaster, 2 masters and 2 mistresses. From 1817 the school was effectively a CofE school. Overcrowding by 1902 led to premises in Steelhouse Lane and Bull Street being rented. In 1920 the school was recognised as a public elementary school accommodating 250 pupils; the building was again enlarged 1922.
A new school by Ball & Simister was built on the site of a large private residence Harborne Hill House at B15 Harborne Somerset Road 1930 and the original building sold and demolished 1935 with no visible trace. The main entrance plan of the present building is based on the original school in town. The admission age was lowered to 7 in 1938; the school took aided status 1948 which was given up 1955. In 1955 there were 8 classrooms. Detached buildings are placed around three sides of a large grassed quadrangle. The school which was set up for under-privileged children and funded by legacies, gifts and charitable trusts for over 200 years is now fee-paying.
Birmingham’s first public statues (excluding church monuments), a boy and girl in uniform by Edward Grubb & Samuel Grubb 1770 in stone painted 1881 which stood on the front of the old building were placed in niches in the hall of the new school building; copies made from casts in artificial stone by William Bloye 1930 stand in niches above the main entrance porch. Inscribed under the boy: Train up a child in the way he should go and when he is old he will not depart from it. Inscribed under the girl: We cannot recompense you but ye shall be recompensed at the resurrection of the just. The inscriptions are inexplicably reversed on the replicas."
Click to expand...
 
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many thanks all for this information. i think i will be paying a visit shortly to the central library archives dept just so see if i can confirm things. wales.
 
Hello Wales,
I would suggest that if you email the Archives before your visit & let them know the years that you are interested in, they can have the material ready for your visit. By the way you will need to obtain a CARN ticket to see items in the Archives You will need to bring proof of your identity eg: passport, driving licence PLUS a utility bill that shows your address. The CARN ticket is free.
Regards,
Margaret.
 
thanks very much margret. last time i was there they were just in the process of starting the carn tickets so i will take the neccarsary id with me. thanks for reminding me. wales.
 
My younger brother went to the Blue Coat School when it re-opened in Harbourne in the mid-fifties. He was granted a free place because of my Mother's straightened circumstances. He was a boarder and only came home for the main holidays, and 'talked posh'. There were only a handful of pupils. Occassionaly I would cycle to his school to take him odd things - it was certainly a school for the well healed, a cut or ten removed from those in Balsall Heath!
 
WALES. Top Pic. The Blue Coat School, 1890 at St. Philips Place.
Bottom pic is the same site 1971. The school was demolished in 1935 and replaced with these Prudential buildings.
 
my grandad went to the old blue coat school his dad had died his sisters went to then in the 1970s i had the privalege of going to the new blue coat school harbourne hill !! my late grandad an great aunts came to look at the new school an found photos of themselves when they were small ghildren 70 years before the moto was GROW IN GRACE i dont live in brum any more but will always support the blues
 
Hello bluecoat boy, nice memories. I live in Quinton and have two schools near by. If I had to be by a school at the end of the days lessons, I would want to be in Harborne because the children at Blue Coat are so much better behaved and polite compared to the other two.
 
well i went there when i was 7 untill i was 12 it was a good school but if you stept out of line the slipper was uses no such thing as adhd or odd them !! funny that i saw 1 boy slippered for stealing no 1 else stole !!!
i have just found this site its great
 
i have a picture of my late grandad from 1908 an a book signed by the governers for him doing well in history i will get them scaned an put up on here
 
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