Antiques experts from a leading fine art auction house are encouraging people living in the Worcester area to search their attics and storerooms for forgotten treasures that might be worth a fortune.

Senior auctioneer and valuer Andrew Beeston will lead a team of experts from Shrewsbury-based Halls who have agreed to hold a charity antiques valuation event at The Pear Tree Inn and Country Hotel at Smite, 10.30am to 2.30pm on Friday.

All money raised from the event will go to Acorns Children’s Hospice in Worcester and its ‘Now is The Time’ fundraising campaign. The appeal asks the public to help secure the future of their local children’s hospice by helping to raise the money needed to fund 25,000 days of care to mark its 25th anniversary.

The Pear Tree Inn and Country Hotel has agreed to host the event free of charge to support fundraising for the hospice.

A team of four experts from Halls will be available to value ceramics, furniture, works of art, paintings, jewellery, silver, coins, toys, books, militaria, sporting items and textiles in return for a £2 fee for each item, with all the proceeds going to Acorns Children’s Hospice.

Mr Beeston appealed to the people of Worcester and surrounding area to turn out to support the fundraising event for such a good cause.

“This valuation event provides an ideal opportunity for people to have their family heirlooms and treasured items valued professionally,” he said. “If they have items that are too big to bring along on the day, they can simply show us photographs or we will be happy to arrange home visits after the event at no additional charge.

“In the past, we have discovered many valuable items in the Worcester area that have been stored away. What makes our job exciting is the possibility of discovering a long forgotten treasure that may have been passed down through the family and has never been valued.”

Carole Crowe, fundraising manager at Acorns, added: “This is a great opportunity to discover whether you have a surprise treasure and support local life limited children at the same time.”

Halls’ top selling painting, a previously unrecorded work by popular 18th century English equestrian artist John Wootton (1682 -1764), which sold for £326,000 in 2010, came from a Worcestershire collector.

For more information about the valuation event, contact Halls on Tel: 01743 284777 or Acorns on Tel 01905 761220.