Ashford-born actress Patsy Byrne has died aged 80, it was announced last night.

The former Ashford School for Girls pupil was best known for playing Nursie in the iconic comedy television show Blackadder.

She starred opposite Miranda Richardson who played Elizabeth I in the second series which was set in Tudor times.

Byrne died at the Denville Hall retirement home for actors, in Hillingdon, north-west London, on Tuesday.

Her death was announced by the British Comedy Guide on Twitter and the Blackadder Facebook page.

Her death follows that of fellow Blackadder actor Rik Mayall less than a fortnight ago.

Tributes poured in on the Blackadder Facebook page. A statement there said: “Very saddened to hear that Blackadder has lost another amazing actor. RIP Patsy Byrne AKA Nursie AKA Bernard.”

Byrne's character Nursie, whose real name was Bernard, was ever-loyal if a little clueless.

She secured a string of theatre and television roles at the start of her career having studied drama at the Rose Bruford School before joining the Royal Shakespeare Company.

Byrne played Betty the Tea Lady in the BBC children’s programme Playdays and starred alongside Tony Robinson, who played Baldrick in Blackadder, in a Series 3 episode of Maid Marian and her Merry Men.

Byrne’s husband Patrick Seccombe, whom she married in 1967, died in 2000.