HE has received awards all over the world but leading scientist Sir Harry Kroto is now set for his most cherished prize yet - an old brick.

The Nobel prize winner will be presented with the unusual memento snatched from the rubble of Wolfenden Primary School, where he began his academic career in the 1940s.

It will be given to him by Bolton South-east MP Brian Iddon who promised Sir Harry a keepsake from the Wolfenden Street school when bulldozers moved in earlier this year.

Dr Iddon had hoped to save some stained glass or green tiles but had forgotten the school was built in 1912 using whatever cheap materials were available.

He said: "When I made the promise I thought the school was Victorian, I should have remembered that it wasn't because because I chaired the governing body for six years."

But Dr Iddon was determined to keep his vow and asked the education authority to send him a bag of bricks.

He cleaned-up one, bearing the date 1912 and the mark of its maker, the Withnell brick works, and mounted it on a plinth inscribed with the words 'The Last Brick - Wolfenden School'. The brick is actually a nice brick as far as bricks go," he said.

"But I know Sir Harry has happy memories of his time at the school and will cherish it."

He will hand over the prize at a meeting of the Royal Society of Chemistry tomorrow when Sir Harry is to pass on the presidency to Dr Simon Campbell, who led the team which discovered Viagra.

Sir Harry, aged 65, jointly won the Nobel Prize for Chemistry in 1996 for his revolutionary discovery of carbons called fullereness.

The discovery has been used to transform construction and civil engineering projects and to make super computers.

Wolfenden Primary was demolished after it was merged with Chalfont Street School and was renamed the Valley Community School. It is now at a new site on Hibbert Street, off Blackburn Road.

Headteacher Gwen Acton said: "It is great that Sir Harry remembers his days at Wolfenden and he is still a great source of inspiration to all our pupils."