| Description | Admin History: The first meeting of the trustees charged with the establishment of the Blind Asylum and Blue Coat School charities took place on 6 Feb 1824 at the Star Inn, Deansgate Manchester.
As the forth codicil of Thomas Henshaw's will, in which he bequeathed the close of Meadow Land called Frank Hill for the building of a Blue Coat School, had been declared invalid the school was without land or capital to build the school. The only other specification that Thomas had given in the will was that a suitable site should be found either in Manchester or if thought more convenient Oldham.
An appeal was made for land in or around Manchester when none was forthcoming a similar appeal was made in Oldham. Over the following eighteen month no suitable offers were made and several other schemes were explored including the possibility of releasing some of the capital or leasing buildings. Eventually, offers of adjoining land in Oldham were made by Mr Robert Radcliffe and Mr Joseph Jones. This offer of adjacent land at Oldham Edge was accepted and the trustees resolved to raise £5,000 to build the school on this site.
In Nov 1825, Mr Foster of Liverpool, Architect, was appointed to draw up plans for the school. After almost two years and no progress the job was reassigned to Richard Lane of Manchester, Architect.
Mr Bellhouse commenced building work in 1829 and on 29 Apr, the first stone was laid by Thomas Barker. Work was forced to cease in Jul 1830 due to a lack of funds and did not resume until Aug 1832. The final funds were made available by a grant of £2,493 2s 10d which was accumulated dividends held by the Court.
Apr 1833 saw the exterior of the building completed the interior of the building was completed Dec 1834. The total cost of the school building was £7,900.
The first students were admitted on 15 Dec 1834.
Scope and Content: These records relate to the establishment of the school, in particular details of the process of obtaining the land and erecting the school and matters relating to its initial organisation, such as estimated budgets, scholars elections, etc. The records are mainly letters to and from the solicitors Messers Eccles, Cririe and Slater to the school trustees and have been arranged in chronological order.
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