TV ACTRESS and dancer Una Stubbs has traced her family tree to York.

The star of Sherlock, Til Death Do Us Part and the Cliff Richard film Summer Holiday discovered her links while making Who Do You Think You Are?, which was screened last night.

Thanks to archivists in York, the 76-year-old old discovered grandparents she never knew and a unsual link with the Rowntree factory.

Before she started on her quest, the actress said: “I have no idea about my past.

“What is so strange is that we knew nothing about my father’s family. He never introduced us to his parents. I don’t even know their names, that’s strange.

“We never met them, never saw, he never brought them...”

Archivists from York helped Una discover her family’s past in The Groves area of York.

They found her grandmother Annie once lived in the York workhouse and discovered that Una’s grandfather, Arthur, worked at the Rowntree factory 30 years before Una became the face of Rowntrees Dairy Box in the 1950s.

The programme followed Una as she discovered her grandmother, Annie Robinson, gave birth to an illegitimate son in the Huntington Road workhouse in 1903.

At the time she was using the name Annie Horsfall, after the family that had informally adopted her, as she too was born illegitimate.

On her mother’s side, Una, who lives in London, found that her great-grandfather was Sir Ebenezer Howard, who founded the new towns of Letchworth and Welwyn Garden City Filming for the show took place last November, using documents from more than 150 years ago, and the discoveries were kept secret until now.

The council’s archivists are skilled at finding information in documents dating back as far as 800 years, a spokesman said and even though the archives were temporarily closed for building work, they can still help people inspired to trace their family’s past.

Anyone interested in genealogy can drop into York Explore, can examine copies of the workhouse registers at the Explore Centre, or take advantage of free online access to ancestry.co.uk in city libraries. The council is also taking bookings for two free sessions in September to help beginners trace their family history using the internet. Contact archives@york.gov.uk