About the Project
The Blue Coat School Archive project is part of the larger Blue Coat For All project which focused on the restoration of the school’s historic and rare Father Willis pipe organ, supported by the National Lottery Heritage Fund (NLHF).
The NLHF grant not only covered the first total restoration of the Father Willis organ since it was built in 1875, but also a series of community engagement activities including an Oral History project, capturing over 40 individual’s recollections about the school, launching a Community Choir, staging a Science Ceilidh workshops and cataloguing and digitising the School’s broad and wide-ranging archive collection.
Working together with a team of Heritage Volunteers, comprised of Old Blues, former members of staff and parents and grandparents of Old Blues, we have uncovered items including the Minute Book documenting the School’s plans to relocate to Wavertree in 1906, reports documenting the difficulties the School faced recruiting trained teachers during the First and Second World Wars and the testimonials associated with the appointment of Matron in 1932.