Dame Elizabeth Perriam’s Charity or Bluecoat School was founded by Lady Elizabeth Perriam in 1609 to teach the sons of Henley’s poorer craftsmen and tradesmen. The school occupied the same building, the Chantry House, as Henley Grammar School (please see S128/1 for records of this school) located on the middle floor. The school was better well-endowed than Grammar School, so as a result of their financial troubles in 1778 the two schools were united by Act of Parliament as the United Charity Schools of Henley-on-Thames (please see S128/3 for records of this school). The school became known as the Lower School though to begin with they remained distinct schools. In 1792 the schools moved to premises on the south side of Hart Street and a new schoolroom was built in 1858. In 1892 the two schools recombined on the Northfield End site and was renamed Henley Grammar School (please see S128/4 for records of this school). In 1928 the running of the school was taken over by the County Council and the school moved to the Rotherfield Court site.
The majority of the records were deposited as Acc 3160 in December 1990 and Acc 3449 in March 1992. Catalogued by Heleen van Rossum June 1993, recatalogued by Alison Smith in April 2009.