A recycling centre worker was stunned to find a duvet cover with her name sewn inside that she had used at boarding school – 20 YEARS ago.
Stunned Anna Barlow, 33, used the bed sheet at boarding school in Colchester in Essex for four years until the age of 12.
The words ‘Anghared Barlow’ – her name in Welsh – were carefully sewn inside so it would not be lost.
She left the duvet cover at the school when she finished there in 1989 and later moved 300 miles from Cambridge to Devon.
But incredibly Anna has now been reunited with the single duvet after it was handed into a textiles recycling centre where she works.
Mother-of-one Anna was sorting through a bin bag full of fabrics which had been donated when she spotted a familiar floral pattern.
She discovered her duvet from school with her name still inside – which she had not seen in 21 years.
Anna said: ”I remember taking the duvet cover to school and we all had to have our names sewn inside.
”To be honest I never really liked it that much so when I left the school I didn’t take it with me because it wasn’t very trendy.
”I’d totally forgot about it until I was sorting through a bag of clothes and sheets someone dropped off at the recycling centre.
”I was sorting through and I recognised the material but wasn’t sure why. Then I spotted my name tag – it’s incredible.
”I have moved almost three hundred miles and it’s been over 20 years – but somehow the duvet cover followed me.”
Anna used the duvet at the Homeward House boarding school in Colchester, Essex, from 1985 to 1989.
She left the school and later moved to Chagford in Devon and now works at the recycling centre in nearby Newton Abbot.
Her father, Robert Barlow, 59, who still lives in Cambridge, says he can remember Anna leaving the duvet at the school.
He said: ”I remember Anna taking it when she went off to boarding school – we had to sew names into everything she had.
”She left it there and I assume the school either let another pupil use it or sent it for recycling.
”It’s an amazing story that she has been reunited with it, all these years and miles later. It even still had her name on.”
