THE bombardment of Hartlepool will be in the spotlight after BBC TV’s Antiques Road Trip came to town.

The programme involves two antiques experts setting off on a road trip around the UK, searching for treasures and competing to make the most money from them at auction.

And the latest episode – which will air on BBC One on Wednesday (September 23) at 4.30pm – features experts Anita Manning and David Harper shopping in Yorkshire and County Durham before heading off to auction in Newcastle.

Anita was filmed visiting the Museum of Hartlepool at Hartlepool’s Maritime Experience to find out about the personal stories of those who were caught up in the German naval bombardment of the Hartlepools (CORR) in 1914.

Mark Simmons, Hartlepool Council’s museums manager, said: “It was lovely to meet Anita and she was absolutely charming.

“We showed her original items relating to the bombardment and also took her to see the bombardment memorial which was unveiled last year near the Heugh Gun Battery. She was clearly fascinated and moved by the story of such a major national event.”

A total of 130 civilians and military personnel were killed and more than 500 were wounded when German warships fired more than a thousand shells on the Hartlepools just after 8am on December 6.

The Headland’s Heugh Gun Battery returned fire in what was the only battle to be fought on British soil during the First World War, and one of the Battery’s soldiers, Theo Jones of the Durham Light Infantry, became the first British soldier to be killed by enemy action on home ground in the war.