Crowds of people from all over Pembrokeshire converged on Tenby Leisure Centre yesterday (Thursday) as the BBC's popular Antiques Roadshow rolled into town.
Some of Britain's leading antiques and fine arts specialists, including Henry Sandon, Eric Knowles, Lars Tharp and Hilary Kay, were on hand throughout the day to offer free advice and valuations, which resulted in queues of people clutching bags and boxes containing their family heirlooms and household treasures beginning to form as early as 7 am.
By 10.30, well over 500 people had passed through the doors, with the producers estimating they would see upwards of 1,500 by the time doors closed at 4.30 pm.
The popular Sunday evening programme's production crew actually arrived earlier in the week to prepare the centre for filming and to start collecting some of the larger items of furniture to be shown.
Now in its silver anniversary season, pulling over nine-million viewers every week, the Roadshow last visited the south of the county 10 years ago when it filmed an edition in Pembroke.
This was its first visit to Tenby during its 25-year history, but it was not the first visit to the popular resort for the show's presenter, Michael Aspel, however.
"Actually we visited Tenby as a family when my twins were five," he told the Observer. "They are 38 now, so that was some time ago!
"I recall we stayed at the hotel where Augustus John was born and we had nothing but sunshine, which is ironic because it was raining yesterday (Wednesday) when we were filming the opening sequences of the show around the town!"
Mr. Aspel, who used to live in Cardiff, said he was always delighted to return to Wales and the Tenby show was producing some interesting objects.
"This is my third year presenting the show and I'm always amazed at the amount of interesting stuff that can be found on people's mantelpieces," he smiled.
"I have a really good feeling about Tenby; it's getting warm in the hall, which is always a sign of things hotting up.
"The beauty of this programme is that absolutely anything can happen. We've already seen a painting believed to be an Edward Lear, and a 'traveller's friend', which apparently is a chamber pot which was kept in stagecoaches!
"There have been so many things of interest; I was particularly taken by a cricket bat signed by Don Bradman."
Mr. Aspel was also interested to meet Peggy Cole, of Tenby, who brought along her treasured teddy bear.
"It's been in the family for over 60 years," Mrs. Cole told the Observer. "My father bought it second hand from the two Misses Farley, who used to live where Equinox is now in St. Julian Street. "We all used to play with him."
Mrs. Cole later learned that the bear was an early Steif dating from around 1905.
"He's got quite a bit of damage, so he's not worth an awful lot, but it was really interesting to find out how old he was. Steif bears are celebrating their 100th anniversary and our bear was one of the early imports."
Mayor of Tenby, Clr. Mrs. Christine Brown, and fellow councillor, Mrs. Maureen Ward, also popped in to the Roadshow with some of the town's civic regalia.
The town maces caught the eye of expert Alistair Dickenson who was able to reveal that not all was as it appeared with the town's 17th century heirlooms, while he also cast his gaze over the Mayoral chain of office!
During her visit, Clr. Mrs. Brown also took the opportunity to present porcelain expert Henry Sandon and Mr. Aspel with limited edition loving cups created by Glyn Coch Designs to commemorate the Queen's Jubilee and the 600th anniversary of Tenby's Royal Charter of 1402.
In the afternoon, the Mayor was joined by chairman of the county council, Clr. Mrs. Rosemary Hayes, and other civic leaders for a behind the scenes look at the show
Crowds continued to build throughout the day, particularly for porcelain and miscellaneous items, with everyone who attended getting an expert opinion on their treasures, although, naturally not everything will be able to be shown when the programme hits the screens in the autumn.