A RING containing what is believed to be a lock of author Charlotte Bronte's hair was aired on the latest episode of BBC One's Antiques Roadshow.

The ring, found in a Welsh attic, was examined by antiques expert Geoffrey Munn during the show which was filmed in Erdigg, in north Wales.

The hinged ring opens to reveal a braid of hair which Mr Mann said he believed it was: “utterly and completely credible” the hair had been that of the author of Jane Eyre.

A spokesman for the Bronte Parsonage, in Haworth, said: "While the provenance is as yet not entirely clear, we have no reason to doubt the ring is genuine.

"We are always on the lookout for new items for our display however our charitable status means we cannot always purchase everything we would like to.

"We already have a collection of hair which is on display at the Bronte Parsonage Museum."

A Tweet from the Antiques Roadshow read: "Geoffrey Munn believes this ring contains the hair of Charlotte Bronte and ‘as a relic of one of the greatest romantic novelists of the 19th century’, he values this ‘tiny, tiny little thing’ at £20,000’.

In contrast he said, without the hair, he would have valued it at £25.

Bronte Parsonage Museum retweeted saying: "Not the first time something unexpected has been discovered locked in an attic..."