The Blue House, next to the town bridge, is Grade 1 listed; it was formerly the Bluecoat School and Almshouses, named after the colour of the school uniforms. Built in 1726 at a cost of £1,401 8s 9d, it replaced an almshouse dating from 1461 and rebuilt in 1621. The Blue House provided a home for twenty widows and schooling for twenty boys.
The front of the building is adorned by two statues, of a man and a woman, indicating the building’s dual purpose. The building’s role as a school came to an end in 1921 and it now provides studio and one-bedroom flats for seventeen elderly residents. Wikipedia
TRAVEL WORDS 
Interesting building, Jude
I thought so. The statues caught my attention.
Happy Easter from Amarante! The church bells have just stopped going crazy. I expect there’s a procession after mass but we haven’t made it to breakfast yet. There was a car rally here yesterday so all a bit mad. Have a lovely Easter Sunday 🤗💟
Thank you – just received my eggs 😋
Chocolate or hard boiled? Shame on you, Jude! None for me so far this year 🤗🐰🐣💟
Chocolate of course!
🤣💗
A wonderful history and lovely building 🙂
Unusual buildings intrigue me.
There were ‘Blewcoat’ Schools in London too. Here is one in Soho.
https://www.britainexpress.com/attractions.htm?attraction=1421
I know of another one in Caxton St, Sw1.
Best wishes, Pete. x
I just read that the one in Caxton St replaced the one in Soho.
The Caxton Street one could well be Grey Coat Hospital – my old school. There are quite a few about, aren’t there?
If you check out the link, you will see that the Blewcoat school moved from Soho to Caxton St, Margaret. I suspect that The Greycoat School was another charitable ‘competitor’ at one time. 🙂
Best wishes, Pete.
Healthy competition. The need was all too apparent.
Interesting to me as a former pupil of Grey Coat School, whose history and frontage was very similar.
Oh, wow! I never knew about these schools.
They’re pretty widespread,. The first I met was in Liverpool: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Liverpool_Blue_Coat_School though this one seems somewhat in defiance of its original aims.
I’m glad you answered the question that immediately sprang to mind when confronted with a picture of an obviously non-blue house below the title “The Blue House.”
This building has had so many different purposes. It’s nice to know it is still being well used.
Yes, it is good that such buildings are repurposed.
Very attractive building and interesting history.
Very stately house. Chocolate eggs are the best. Happy Easter.
Thanks Janet, hope you enjoyed your Easter. Sorry to have read about your Mom. I know you moved to Phoenix to be close to your parents and support them, but I hadn’t realised that she died a few months ago. Hope your father is coping alright, it’s quite a shock to lose a partner, especially at his age.
What a beautiful building!
Certainly caught my eye so then I had to find out what it was!