St John's Hospital

From Chester Wiki

The hospital 'for the sustentation of poor and silly persons' which stood outside the North Gate of Chester was probably founded by Ranulph III, Earl of Chester, in the early 1190s. He gave the site in free alms and free of all services except the reception and care of the poor and ordered that the brothers of the hospital who travelled through Cheshire preaching and collecting alms should be honourably treated. The earl's grant was made to the Virgin and All Saints but within a few years the hospital had acquired its dedication to St. John the Baptist (Sigillum Hospitalis Sancti Iohannus Baptiste Cestrie) and was usually known as the "Hospital of St. John without the North Gate"

The statue is not original, although the original statue is at the Bishop's High School in Blacon. It represents one of the Bluecoat Boys - John Coppack. John Collins, a former headmaster of the Bluecoat school (1919-49) had the statue reinstalled in a niche in the entrance hall of the Bishops School. The statue had been at the Bluecoat school in the mid 19th Century. Collins told the Chester Chronicle:

• 'that when some extensions were made to the school about 1850, a pupil at the school, John Coppack, went to London to pose for a new statue, which was duly placed in the niche outside the building'.

It is not known what happened to the statue after this date - but in the early 20th Century, Collins retrieved it from property of Mr. Haswell a stonemason in Parkgate Road. Collins had it installed in an alcove inside the bluecoat building for some years. When the statue was subsequently handed over to the Bishop's school, it was repainted by the Deputy Head.

[edit] Sources

• British History Online
• Virtual Stroll adds more facts
• Bluecoat Statue