Blue Coat Children Marching to Curzon Hall, Birmingham (1901)

Church school pupils set off for a trip to the famous Birmingham entertainment hall.

Birmingham's Blue Coat School (established 1722) was one of many charity schools founded by the Church of England to educate children from poor families. Garbed in Tudor-period frocks - dyed blue, the traditional colour of almsgiving - the boys would have made a quaint sight as they were marched briskly to what was presumably supposed to be a fun outing.