Andrew Lloyd Webber comes to town

Lord Andrew Lloyd Webber took time out from filming a new TV show to take in the sights of a Wolverhampton tourist attraction.

The composer was at Wightwick Manor as part of a documentary about Pre-Raphaelite art being broadcast on ITV next year.

And Lord Lloyd Webber, who was chauffeur driven, also managed to take a tour of the Grade I-listed site and even signed the visitors' book, calling it was "the most extraordinary place."

In the visitors book he wrote: "In all my years of loving Victorian Art, I had no idea until now just how precious this house and its collection is."

The 62-year-old had earlier shocked staff at the Mermaid pub off Bridgnorth Road when he turned up for a quick bite to eat yesterday.

The composer enjoyed a prawn cocktail and duck liver pate with a bottle of Chablis wine at the Mermaid.

Waitress Jemma Hawkins said: "He came in with another lady, who I think might have been his wife.

"When he first walked in I thought I recognised him and as soon as he spoke I knew who it was."

Lord Lloyd-Webber is married to Madeleine Gurdon, his third wife.