A FORMER teacher whose 70-year-old university thesis became a valuable addition to the archives of a North-East museum has died at the age of 91.

When she handed her 84-page study to lecturers at Newcastle in 1935, Connie Ayre, then Connie Atherton, never dreamt it would one day be prized by 21st Century mining enthusiasts.

Her dissertation examined the geology, geography and development of Upper Weardale, in County Durham, and is as topical today as when it was written.

Mrs Ayre, from Stanhope, County Durham, presented it to the Friends of Killhope, the North of England Lead Mining Museum, on Durham's border with Cumbria, last summer.

It had lain forgotten until 2003, when it turned up in the School of Geography, Politics and Sociology at Newcastle University.

Mrs Ayre's son-in-law, David Budgen, contacted the university, who sent her a 90th birthday card and surprised her by finding the bound copy.

Typed by a friend and illustrated with black and white photographs and meticulous hand drawings, the document was too fragile to be on permanent display and is reserved for special exhibitions.

Mrs Ayre grew up in Bishop Auckland, where her father Albert Henry Atherton ran a shoe shop.

She taught in Tynemouth after graduating from Armstrong College, which became part of Newcastle University the year after she left.

She moved to Stanhope when her husband Charlie got a job teaching French at Wolsingham Grammar School, raising daughters Elizabeth and Margaret.

Memories of her university days flooded back last July when she visited Killhope to hand over the thesis.

She said: "It was amazing that it should turn up after all this time. I worked hard on it and I am pleased that it has come to Killhope where it will do some good."

A committal service at Durham Crematorium on Monday at noon is followed at 1pm by a service of thanksgiving in Stanhope Methodist Chapel.