CROWTHORN School -- the isolated series of buildings at Edgworth high on the moors outside Bolton -- has been caring for orphans and other children for 130 years.

Dennis Stokes arrived there in 1927 as a six-year-old orphan, with just the clothes he stood up in. He left Crowthorn in 1936, aged 15, with a Bible and half-a-crown (12p) to his name.

Now aged 80, he made the emotional journey back for the first time since he left -- just before Crowthorn School closed for good. Irma Heger was with him on his sentimental journey.

DENNIS is a quiet man who walks with a stick and wears a hearing aid.

But he has a sharp mind and an impressive memory. He accurately drew the positions of all the Crowthorn School buildings just days before his visit.

Almost 66 years after leaving the school, on a cold and breezy day, Dennis was taken back to the sprawling hilltop site, 900 feet above sea level, by friends.

Guided around by acting head teacher Mike Fahey, Dennis said: "I don't really think things have changed a great deal."

Dennis, who lives in Nottingham with his wife Mary, said he had happy memories of the school, but they are tinged with the sadness of losing his parents.

He was born in Monmouth, South Wales. His mother died of sleeping sickness when he was four, and his father from tuberculosis a year later.

While his older brothers were in the Army and his sister "in service" in London, Dennis and his brother, Stanley, were taken into a National Children's Home called Stonehill and later another called Caerleon.

In 1927, Stanley and Dennis were moved to Edgworth, where they were later joined by another brother, John.

"You were just told to get ready. In those days, that was it," said Dennis about how he was prepared for his new life in Bolton.

"We were put on trains and didn't have anything, just what we stood up in.

"I remember when we arrived, it was Bonfire Night. The boys were in the school yard, standing there. I just felt at a loss. That wasn't very good at all, but you gradually got into the swing of things. You made of it what you could."

Dennis's most vivid memories are of Watson house -- the large house he lived in for all those years, cared for by Sisters Gertrude and Winifred. Today, it is owned privately.

Dennis was one of 25 boys who lived there, slept in the dormitory, played football in the fields, climbed the trees, and tended the garden.

Despite sharing a home with so many boys in the same situation, Dennis never really got close to anyone. "I didn't make friends with them. I was one of those people who was shy, for want of a better word. I would have been lost without my brother."

But he added: "The Sisters looked after us pretty well. You had your prayers before breakfast, you had to make your bed and all the household chores were done by the boys. It was the same thing every day.

"We never seemed to have a lot of spare time and never really got out a great deal, but once a year we used to go to Southport.

"I remember I had to borrow a costume to have a swim because there weren't enough cozzies to go round. Sometimes we used to go into Darwen -- but I can't remember ever going into Bolton."

Even Christmas was a "sparse" affair, according to Dennis.

"The governor would come round as Father Christmas and you would get an apple, an orange and a bag of sweets -- and that was it. There wasn't a great deal to give anybody in those days."

Misbehaviour, meanwhile, was not tolerated. "You would have to peel bags of spuds, or wash the kitchen floors if you did anything wrong, although I can't remember having to do any chores because I was too scared to misbehave."

At the age of 14, Dennis spent a year learning woodwork and carpentry, but there was no money to buy him an apprenticeship. So in September 1936, the month he turned 15, he found himself travelling alone by train to Nottinghamshire.

"When you have been with the lads for nine years, you are bound to have regrets -- especially when you don't know where you are going or what you are going to do," Dennis said.

But soon he settled into his new life as a farmhand, boarding with a family who treated him "just like a son". At least the farm-grown food was an improvement on Edgworth.

"At the home we used to have stews with lots of fat in them," Dennis laughed. "So the fat used to go into my pocket and I would chuck it when I got outside."

Later, he met Mary at a local dance, and they married. The couple had a son and a daughter and to Dennis's great delight, a grandson was born recently.

So what will Dennis take away from his visit back to Bolton? With tears falling down his cheek, Dennis said: "It's hard to describe. It's very emotional, but I'm glad I have been back."

EDGWORTH CHILDREN'S HOME - THE EARLY DAYS

On April 17, 1872, 24 children from the streets from the "filthy squalor" of London arrived on the "bracing hillside" of Edgworth Homes.

The home was based at the former Old Wheatsheaf Inn, which was once a notorious centre for "cock-fighting , dog-fighting, rat baiting and Sunday drinking".

The pub was bought by James Barlow, a great temperance advocate, who gave it to founder and principal Dr Thomas Bowman Stephenson.

Children had to help with the actual building and quarrying of stone to help repair and create the many buildings.

It was the first branch outside London of the National Children's Home and regularly housed 300 orphans from 1925.

In the early days, many youngsters who left the home were shipped to Canada.

In 1953, it became a boarding school for educationally sub-normal pupils.

In its centenary year, 1972, the then Crowthorn Special School housed 140 boarders and taught 19 day pupils with learning difficulties.

The home's most famous ex-pupil is Shirley Broomfield, better known as film star Shirley Ann Field who appeared in "Alfie". She was transferred there to escape the London Blitz when she was five.

Last summer the closure of what is now known as Crowthorn School -- employing 100 staff and taking care of 47 children aged seven to 16 -- was announced as "the needs of pupils could no longer be met" by the school, according to the NCH.

Six year 11 pupils will continue their education at the school until this summer.