Old Blue Coat School

My friend Steve captured this image of the old Blue Coat School a couple of years ago. Hope it is useful to some members.

In Benjamin Poole's "The New History of Coventry" (published in 1852) on page 92 (available for free online) he states that the Blue Coat School at that time was a girls only school. Just wondering if that would have been the case in the 1810s and 1820s? I see in the bibliography on this website that there is a A History of the Blue Coat School and the Lych Gate Cottages by George Demidowicz (published in 2000) but I don't have a copy of this. Is anyone able to shed any light on whether it was a girls school in the early 1800s? Thanks in advance.

The school existed at that time but didn't look like it does now. It was rebuilt in 1856. The school is the building to the right. I don't know if the tower was part of it at that time. None of the remains of the priory below the level of the graveyard had been excavated.

SJT I have always understood from a lovely elderly Coventry lady that the Blue Coat School prepared girls for domestic service and she was one of them. It seems unlikely that boys attended the school then, though Blue Coat schools in other cities were for boys. Ware in Hertfordshire being one of them, and Bristol another.

I agree with the Prof's view of what the school was for. Most of what you seen in this picture is from 1856. Even the end wall of the Lych Gate Cottage on the left has had its chimney removed and a window put in.

It doesn't appear that boys ever attended the school in Coventry, other cities yes. When the original school was built in 1714 it was for girls, in Coventry. but in London I think it was mixed.

Thanks everyone for your responses. Looks like the consensus is it was not a school for boys. Excellent. As always, this forum is awesome.

Has anyone looked at the coeducational version recently, not even in the same league as the original. My daughter attended the modern Blue Coat School during 1973/74 and hardly believed me when she saw the original. I sincerely hope Coventry maintains its historic buildings, whether above ground or whatever is found below.