LAUREL and Hardy fans have made a 3,000 mile trip to a County Durham town to see where one of their idols once lived.

Fans from America were part of a group of Laurel and Hardy enthusiasts who visited Bishop Auckland to see the house where a young Stan Laurel, then called Stan Jefferson, lived.

The fan club, named the Sons of the Desert after one of the comedy duo’s famous films, also enjoyed lunch in the Stanley Jefferson pub and posed for photos beside a statue of the funnyman on the spot of a theatre once owned by his father.

The group of fans, who have been at a convention in the south, came from across this country and America and are touring UK spots linked to Stan Laurel, who was born in Ulverston in Cumbria but went to school in Bishop Auckland.

There are about 30 branches of the Sons of The Desert in the UK and 100 in the USA, where the group started in the 1950s with a constitution partly written by Stan Laurel.

Irv Hyatt (CORR) from New Jersey said while it was a love of Laurel and Hardy that brought all the fans together, they were now bound by an enduring friendship.

He said: “We are great friends and always have a great time when we get together.

“This was my first time in Bishop Auckland, I like it, the statue is wonderful and really captures the spirit of Stan Laurel.”