Ex-pupil saddles up to lead school parade

FORMER Blue Coat pupil Katie Connor (left) leads the parade on Stelforth with a colleague.

FORMER Blue Coat pupil Katie Connor saddled up to celebrate the school’s 175th founder’s day service.

The mounted officer from Greater Manchester Police led yesterday’s annual parade from the Egerton Street school to Oldham war memorial. Wreaths were laid before hundreds of pupils, staff, governors and guests attended a service at Oldham parish church.

Hat manufacturer Thomas Henshaw left £40,000 for the endowment of the Blue Coat School when he died in in 1810. The foundation stone was laid in 1829, and Blue Coat opened in 1834 as a boys’ boarding school.

The mounted police officers were a new feature for the parade. They were followed by standard bearers and the school band.