The Blue-coat School Horsedge Street, Oldham

Ten days before Christmas 1834 the first 48 boys were admitted into Henshaw’s Blue Coat School, Oldham. When they first climbed Oldham Edge, a bleak hill above the town, and set eyes upon the grim gritstone building on its summit, with its turrets and its castellated walls, they must have been assailed by grave doubts about their future happiness. They had probably already heard the townsfolk refer to it as “the prison;” and indeed it looked like one.

In 1828 land on Oldham Edge was offered by Robert Radcliffe and Joseph Jones of Oldham and was accepted as the site. A public subscription fund for the erection of the school was then opened, and though the £5,000-6,000 so raised was not sufficient for the completion of the building, the foundation stone was laid on Easter Monday 20 April 1829 by Thomas Barker, one of the most liberal of the benefactors. The work continued until July 1830, when it was suspended for want of funds.  After an interval of two years, work was resumed. The building was completed in 1833 at a total cost of £7,900. The architect was Richard Lane of Manchester, and the principal rooms were the school room, dining rooms and the hall for the meeting of the trustees. [Manchester Guardian 15 December 1934 page 5]