MANY children who were in class when Veronica Crump took over a Herefordshire nursery are now married with children of their own and contemplating early middle age!

Veronica became head and teacher-in-charge at the Kimbolton village nursery school 23 years ago and has helped give 600 children a start in life during the past quarter of a century.

To mark her retirement she was given a special party send-off by past and present pupils followed by a farewell from teachers and parents in which she was collected from home in a limousine.

"Veronica has done a great job with the nursery and the majority of the children she has taught have come into our school," said Chis Morris, head of Kimbolton Primary School.