ls in 1844. Winfield's in one sense must be
called a public school, though connected with a factory and built (at a
cost of over L2,000) for the education of the young people there
employed. The respected owner of the Cambridge Street Works, like many
other Conservatives, was one of the most liberal-minded men, and
hundreds owe not only their education, but their present position in
life to the care bestowed upon them at this school.--A Roman Catholic
School was opened in Bartholomew Street, October 1, 1872; in Brougham
Street, December 27, 1872; and new Schools in Shadwell Street, (costing
about L4,500), June 25, 1883--The Palmer Street Congregational Schools,
which cost L2,500, were opened February 12, 1877. The old Wesleyan
chapel, in Martin Street, was fitted up for schools in 1865. The same
body opened schools at Summer Hill, in 1874; in Icknield Street West,
January 1, 1875; and laid the first stone of another school in Sterling
Road, September 22, 1884.--the Hebrew National Schools, Hurst Street,
were opened May 21, 1844.

The Birmingham and Edgbaston Proprietary School, Hagley Road, was the
property of a company constituted by deed of settlement, dated February
28, 1839. The cost of the land chosen to build upon and the handsome
edifice erected was L10,500, the school being opened in 1841. In 1874
there was originated a Birmingham Higher Education Society, and in 1876
a scheme was adopted for a High School for Girls in conjunction with the
Proprietary School, a company being formed, with a nominal capital of
L20,000, for the purchase of the property; but the days of the School's
prosperity seem to have passed away, and in August,1881, it was bought
over by the Governors of the Free Grammar School.

_Blue Coat School_ (facing St. Phillip's Churchyard) founded in 1721,
and was erected in 1724, provision having been made in the Act for
building St. Philip's Church for securing the necessary land required
for the school for a term of 1,000 years at 10s. per year. The first
cost of the building was about L3,000, but many alterations and
extensions have since been made thereto, the quaint little statues in
the front being put up in 1770; they are the work of Mr. Edward Grubb,
and are said to have been portraits of two of the children then actually
in the school. The first bequest recorded is that of Mrs. Elizabeth
White, who in 1722 left nearly 30 acres of land worth about L250 per
year for the support of the school.