Catalogue description CHESTER BLUE GIRLS' SCHOOL

Annual reports

For previous deposits relating to the Blue Girls' School see ZCR 3/58 and ZCR 57.

Blue Girls' School, Chester

• Chester, Cheshire

A Blue Girls' School was established in Chester in 1720 to teach poor girls to read and write, to understand the church catechism, and to sew, knit and spin. The early location of the school is uncertain, although it was probably housed in the Bluecoat Hospital, until 1810, when a school was built in St. Martin's-in-the-Fields, on land belonging to Chester Infirmary. The school was administered by a committee of ladies. In 1865 the Blue Girls' School was forced to leave its premises in St. Martin's-in-the-Fields, because of proposed extensions to the Infirmary, and the school occupied temporary premises at 38 Queen Street, until a new school was built in 1872 in Vicar's Lane, on a site given by the first Duke of Westminster. The Blue Girls' School closed in 1940.