RYLSTONE Close is an ordinary horseshoe of ordinary houses, but for 18 months in the late 1970s it was home to one extraordinary resident.

Harold Shipman had already killed his first victim when, in 1976, he moved into the recently-built end terrace house in Newton Aycliffe, County Durham.

He lived in the small family house, which is currently up for sale, until 1978 with his wife, Primrose, and their two eldest children, while he worked in a clinic in Bishop Auckland.

Few neighbours from Shipman's time still live in the street, and those that remain are becoming weary of their link with one of the world's biggest serial killers. Journalists from national newspapers have trampled up their front paths on numerous occasions offering financial inducements to spill the beans.

One near neighbour, who remains a close friend of Primrose, said she had even been quoted in books about the case without her permission.

But despite the offer of a large cheque, she has remained tight-lipped about her relationship with the family, preferring to keep a promise to Shipman's wife that she would not talk to the press.

But, in truth, they have little to tell - or to sell. Another neighbour recalls that Shipman was known as Fred, that his children played with other local children, but that, all in all, he kept himself to himself.

"When all this came out we didn't believe he was guilty," she said. "It's shocking to realise what people are capable of."

Shipman appears to have made little impression on the ordinary community where he lived, but the extraordinary furore since he left is unlikely to die down for some time.