The Bluecoat School was founded in 1646 by Richard Aldworth, a merchant, as a charitable foundation (Aldworth's Hospital) to support 20 poor boys and their schoolmaster. Its original home was near St Mary's in Reading, but in January 1947 it moved to Holme Park, its present home, well known as the site of the medieval palace of the Bishops of Salisbury, and the place where Charles Keyser discovered the 15 capitals and two voussoirs that form the core of the collection of Reading Abbey cloister stone now in Reading Museum (qv).

For Sonning, see St Andrew's church, Sonning.

These pier drums come with no history of their own, and are only included here because of their Holme Park provenance.