Truth Conquers All: A history of Reading Blue Coat School

Reading Blue Coat School was opened in 1660 to teach twenty 'children of honest poore men', according to the bequest of merchant Richard Aldworth. Despite his and subsequent bequests, the school was initially housed in a dilapidated former inn, and it was a constant struggle to make ends meet and keep the school open. In the mid-nineteenth century the perseverance of the school was rewarded with a new home, 42 Bath Road, and the school began to thrive, with entrance examinations, new subjec...