IT was an emotional ceremony when former pupils and staff at Crowthorn school and children's home unveiled a plaque to commemorate their founder.

The Edgworth home, which closed in 2002, was the first National Children's Home outside London.

It was founded in 1872 by Rev Thomas Bowman Stephenson, after a local mill owner, James Barlow, donated the building along with 80 acres of land and £5,000.

It became Crowthorn Special Needs Residential School in the 1940s, and later had its own farm with cattle, a dairy, bakery, laundry, blacksmiths and a clog-making workshop.

Since the closure, past pupils and staff have held an annual reunion and had collections to raise the £900 for the plaque which was unveiled at their latest reunion yesterday.

They have spent four years getting permission to site the plaque, which shows a picture of Rev Stephenson, on the cornerstone of the school's boundary wall facing Broadhead Road.

Rev Stephenson started as a methodist preacher in Bolton and Manchester before moving to London, where he founded the NCH.

Performing the unveiling was old boy Jim Fearon, aged 71, who now lives in Kent, and former carer Molly Luxford, aged 63, of Broadhead Road.

Mr Fearon said "It's an emotional day for me, because there are a lot of memories associated with this building."

Mrs Luxford said: "The plaque means the world to me because it was very sad when this establishment closed down.

"Now some of the old boys and girls have somewhere to come and reflect. It's like a big family here, and it's hard to explain all the love between the children who lived here."