MIKE MATSON, who was among the 1951 intake at the Stockton-onTees Grammar School, was vaguely aware that one of his grandfathers had attended the same school in the 1890s when it was called the Blue Coat School.

That was all he knew of his school’s history.

Now, 60 years later, after a career in planning, he is beginning to fill in the gaps with the publication of volume one of what promises to be a trilogy.

With an extraordinary wealth of detail that brings alive the social history of Stockton, he looks at how the Blue Coat School was formed in 1721.

The school was the suggestion of the vicar, George Walker, who may have been inspired by his boss, Nathaniel Crew, the Bishop of Durham (immortalised by Lord Crew pubs across the North-East), who the year before had started a blue coat school in Bishop Auckland.

It was to educate poor children, with religious and moral instruction dominating the curriculum.

The pupils were to be given a blue uniform – not to make them feel proud, but to single them out as recipients of charity and to remind them of the virtues of humility.

Mr Matson’s research shows that there were already 15 other charity schools in County Durham.

In Stockton, the vicar persuaded 21 of the great and the good – aldermen, gentry, solicitors, tradesmen, the collector of customs and the owner of The Virgin Inn – to subscribe to the school, and it opened its doors early in 1722.

The first headmaster was James Richardson, who had been attracted from Middletonin-Teesdale by the £20-ayear salary.

A lack of records makes it difficult to count the number of pupils who attended during the 18th Century, but Mr Matson estimates there were about 700.

The first volume is available for £10 from Rediscover Stockton, in the High Street, or Preston Hall Museum, in Eaglescliffe.

For further details, e-mail mcmatson@btinternet.com.