EAST Lancashire-born TV expert Eric Knowles, who has become a household name thanks to his regular appearances on the BBC's long-running series Antiques Roadshow, used to watch its forerunner, Going For A Song, with his family.

Eric and his brother were instructed by their dad to write down what they thought were the values of the items before the experts announced their verdicts -- and whoever lost ended up doing the washing up.

"It was an education and I ended up working on Going For A Song which is the nearest thing I will ever get to pulling on an England shirt," said Eric, a Clarets fan who was born in Nelson and is now based in London.

Hundreds of people took along fascinating items including paintings, books, silverware and ceramics to Hoghton Tower. They were charged £2 for the first item they offered for valuation and £1 for subsequent objects.

About £500 was raised for Hoghton Tower Preservation Trust.

Eric, a specialist in the decorative arts department of world-renowned auction house Bonhams & Brooks in Knightsbridge, London, was always interested in history as a child and would enjoy watching Going For A Song. He quickly saw the value of decorative items after starting work for an American shipping company, realising treasures his parents had started collecting were not "junk", as he had thought as a child.

But how does he remain unflappable and present such a vast amount of knowledge about items he has probably never seen before?

"I have been doing it for 30 years and in that time you categorise everything and put it into sequences -- material, chronological order, then think in terms of background information and then in terms of value," he said.

"Sometimes you are faced with things you have never seen before and you go off 'gut reaction' and offer a valuation 'somewhere in the region of..'"

Eric, who was travelling to Cornwall today to film a programme for the current series of Antiques Roadshow, said the Hoghton Tower valuation day had been very successful with "a few hundred" people bringing along their treasures.

He was joined by general valuers Christopher Surfleet and Henrietta Graham.

"There were so many people we had to start half an hour earlier than planned. I'm glad there were three of us," Eric said.

One of the most valuable items he saw was a large sampler, measuring about 3ft by 4ft, which dated back to about 1780 and was embroidered in black and white. Eric said it must have taken years to complete and valued it at between £2,500-£3,000, saying it would have been worth twice as much if it had been embroidered with coloured thread.

But the find of the day, valued by Chris Surfleet, was a silver-plated Dunhill eight-day clock made in 1932.

The six-inch high clock also doubles as a lighter and is considered highly collectable, being valued at between £4,000-5,000. The owner left it with the valuer to be put into an auction.

Eric was disappointed not to see any Tiffany art glass -- much of which is housed in the Haworth Art Gallery, Accrington but pleased to value a Clarice Cliff bowl owned by Mike Neild, from Blackburn at between £400-500.