Some things never change - he may be a household name now but when Alan Titchmarsh came back to Ilkley he was soon put to work watering the flowers.

The council gardener turned TV celebrity unveiled a blue plaque on the town hall, the place where his working life began. And despite his VIP status the affable Yorkshireman happily obliged when he was presented with a watering can and asked to help out.

For Mr Titchmarsh it was all familiar territory. He used to tend the flowers at the town hall when he was a humble gardener with the parks department. He started his gardening career with the parks department exactly 40 years ago, and said he had learned his craft with the council.

"I am a lot more expensive now," he quipped. " I used to be paid three pounds, nineteen and sixpence per week."

Mr Titchmarsh's connections with the town hall buildings stretch back many years. His parents met in the King's Hall and he went on to meet his first girl friend there.

Later he not only tended the flowerbeds and troughs but also performed in amateur productions with Ilkley Amateur Operatic Society.

And after unveiling the plaque he was delighted to meet up again with a fellow operatic society member Kathleen Pinder, whom he greeted with a kiss.

"I was the pianist so everybody knew me," she said. "It was a close knit group. I also worked in the library when he was a gardener and he used to come and water our flowers every morning."

The Ilkley celebrity, who told the assembled throng he was doing 'missionary work down South', was combining the plaque unveiling with filming for his latest series, the Natural History of Britain.

As well as filming on the Moors he was also planning to visit his grandfather's allotment where he had first developed his love of gardening. He said: "I was setting the scene as this is where my interest in natural history began. My grandfather's allotment was the first time I was conscious of things growing."

Mr Titchmarsh, who likes to make regular trips back to his home town, said: "It is lovely to come back and it is strange standing in front of the flower bed I used to help plant."

The town hall is the first building in Ilkley to be given a Blue Plaque. The Civic Society now hopes to put plaques up at other sites - and the Manor House is next in line.

The first Blue Plaques were erected in London by the Royal Society of Arts in 1867. Since then the concept of commemorating the history of important buildings and the lives of famous people has been carried forward by various bodies including English Heritage, local authorities and civic societies throughout the UK.