NOBEL prize winner Sir Harry Kroto has spoken of his delight at receiving an unusual memento of his old primary school

The former Wolfenden Primary pupil was presented with one of the last surviving bricks -- specially mounted -- following the demolition of the building earlier this year.

It was rescued by Bolton South-east MP Brian Iddon as a reminder for Sir Harry of his schooldays in Bolton.

Sir Harry, aged 65, said he still had a great emotional attachment to the school where he began his academic career in the 1940s.

He last returned to meet pupils at the Wolfenden Street school in 1996 after receiving his Nobel Prize for Chemistry for the discovery of a revolutionary carbon which transformed civil engineering and aided the building of super computers.

Sir Harry, whose mother and Jewish father fled to Bolton from Berlin to escape Hitler in 1937, said: "I am very sentimental about the school and have some great memories of the place.

"I especially remember being made to stay in during lunchtime breaks to finish my school dinners because I couldn't eat it as it was so different to what I had at home.

"All my memories are pretty happy and I enjoyed being at the school very much." "When Brian said he would get me a brick I thought he was joking but the gesture is typical of him, he is very thoughtful and has a very dry sense of humour."

In his days at the school, Sir Harry was known as Harold Krotoschiner. His father changed his surname to Kroto in 1955.

Sir Harry was presented with the brick at a meeting of the Royal Society of Chemistry at which he passed on the presidency to Dr Simon Campbell, who led the team which discovered Viagra.

Wolfenden Primary was demolished after it merged with Chalfont Street School under the name of the Valley Community School.

Dr Iddon said: "He loved the brick and it is wonderful that such a simple thing can make someone happy."

The brick features the date 1912 and the mark of its maker, the Withnell Brick Works, and was mounted by Dr Iddon on a plinth inscribed with the words 'The Last Brick - Wolfenden School'.

Headteacher Gwen Acton said: "Sir Harry is still a great source of inspiration to our pupils."