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September 02 The Blue Coat BoyOn Cross Street, you will find the Blue Coat Boy, stood on a brick plinth. Behind him are bushes, a grass verge, and Timberlake Road. Directly in front of him , set into the pavement, is the centre panel of five carved panels by modern stonemason Richard Kindersley. The Blue Coat Boy does not seem to notice these panels; he is looking beyond them across the street, directly at a building with pink walls that houses a firm of insurance brokers.
The boy is about 4 feet tall and appears, at first, to be all blue, though a closer inspection shows that only his coat and hat are blue. The rest of him is bronzish. The blue coat is of note, being buttoned at the top with large cuffs on the sleeves, and skirted below, in accordance with a certain indeterminate, post-Tudor period. He is wearing a flat blue hat on top of longish hair and a rounded face. A thin scarf is tied round his neck. His shins are bare, and on his feet he wears a sturdy pair of sensible shoes.
The Blue Coat Boy stares at the insurance brokers on the other side of the pedestrianized street. He stares long and hard. His left arm is pointed down and holds an open book, while his right is bent at the elbow with a single index finger pointing to the sky. We can guess that the book might be the Bible and perhaps he is pointing to God, although he will have pointed to many things in his time on the bricks. I can't help thinking that his spiritual home is a great school entrance hall where he stands on a marble plinth, pointing to ornate wood carvings in the high roof. But here he points to the sky which is lightly raining. Other times he points out a sunny day, or a thunderstorm, or an aeroplane flying overhead. On a clear night, he points to the stars, shooting stars sometimes, and even comets. I'll bet he's pointed to things that even astronomers don't know about.
On either side of the Blue Coat Boy statue are park benches where you can sit and enjoy a lunchtime sandwich. I do not know if people who work for the insurance brokers do this, but it wouldn't surprise me. When I went to see the Blue Coat Boy it was raining so I stood up to eat my lunchtime pasty in the rain. I stood slightly to the left of the Boy as I ate.
Each face of the brick plinth has an arched recess and in the front one there is a plaque which reads thus:
THE BLUE COAT BOY
THIS STATUE MARKS THE SIGHT OF
BASINGSTOKE'S BLUE COAT SCHOOL
1659 - 1879
IT WAS CAST FROM AN ORIGINAL LOCATED
AT READING'S BLUE COAT SCHOOL
BOTH WERE FOUNDED BY
RICHARD ALDWORTH
A GOVENOR & BENIFACTOR OF
CHRIST'S HOSPITAL
(THE ORIGINAL BLUE COAT SCHOOL)
THE STATUE WAS ERECTED IN 1994 BY THE
BASINGSTOKE HERITAGE SOCIETY
THROUGH THE GENEROSITY OF MANY INDIVIDUALS
AND ORGANISATIONS & WITH THE AID OF:
BASINGSTOKE AND DEANE BOROUGH COUNCIL
MICHELMERSH BRICK COMPANY, ROMSEY
B.J. CHAMPION CONTRACORS, OAKLEY
A.T. ENGINEERING, TADLEY
SUPPORTED BY
HAMPSHIRE COUNTY COUNCIL
The plaque tells us much about the Blue Coat Boy, but not all. Further information is held at Basingstoke Council website. There it says that "The figure was cast at Basingstoke’s Phoenix Arts Foundry from a mould of the original statue, which can be found at the Blue Coat School in Reading." I don't know what happened to the Basingstoke’s Phoenix Arts Foundry or if it still exists. Perhaps it became Phoenix Bronze Art Ltd, on the Kingsland Business Park near Chinham. It is odd that most everybody involved is mentioned on the plaque except the people who cast the statue.
I cannot find a record of the grant Basingstoke Council gave in respect of the statue. Hampshire County Council website, however, has a record of the £750 grant for the plinth and plaque. Here is a copy of the record:
From the minutes AT A MEETING of the POLICY AND RESOURCES GRANTS PANEL held at
The Castle, Winchester, on Friday 9 September, 1994, there is the following entry:- 41. Basingstoke Heritage Society £750
- purchase of Plinth and Plaque for Blue Coat Boy Statue Comments (3)
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