A WOMAN has travelled from Australia to solve the mystery of a street name in Consett.

Patricia O' Sullivan, from Queensland, knew her father's family had come from a street called Turn Coats Row in the Blackhill area.

In a bid to find out more she made an appeal in The Advertiser to the people of the area - but no-one had ever heard of the street.

Eventually the chairman of the Derwentdale History Society Tommy Moore attempted to solve the mystery on her behalf. After weeks of research he eventually found the name of a long demolished street named Twin Coals Row in the 1881 census.

Mr Moore suspected that was the correct name of the street in an era when names were often changed. He wrote to Mrs O'Sullivan, who decided pay a visit, partly to make further inquiries about her father, William Rodgers.

Mrs O'Sullivan said: "I planned to come to England anyway as I was born in the Cambridge area. But when Tommy wrote to me I thought I'd go to Blackhill where I still have family on my father's side. I found other records about Turn Coats Row which I'm taking home but the really nice bit was Tommy found out I had some other long distance relatives here who I also met. "