Thousands of people turned out in Trowbridge to welcome the Duchess of Cornwall as she arrived to give the three-day West Wilts show the royal seal of approval.

People of all ages packed out Trowbridge Park this morning in a bid to get a glimpse of Camilla as she officially opened the event just after 10.30am.

The Duchess was welcomed into the park by the Wiltshire Army Cadets Force Band and hundreds of children waving flags.

Twenty-one children from Reception to Year 5 at Walwayne Court Primary School in Trowbridge were all clutching home-made flags especially for the occasion.

Year tutor Laura Pocock said: “The children have all been making their flags. We have brought along the children who are good all the time. They have been specially selected by their teachers.”

Pupil Zoe Etches, nine, brought along a posy of flowers she had made at home, while fellow youngster Lucy Knight, aged seven, made a fetching flag.

Lucy said: “I am excited about meeting Camilla. I have never met anyone from the royal family before.”

Wearing a navy blazer, spotted blue and cream skirt and carrying a navy blue handbag, she was welcomed on stage by ITV West presenter Peter Rowell.

Camilla spoke to children, shook their hands and said: "I am delighted to be here today to open the West Wilts Show. It is always a pleasure for me to be in Wiltshire.

Although I have one leg in Gloucestershire, I have one firmly planted in Wiltshire. Any excuse to come back here I come running.

“I want to wish everyone here the best of British luck and have a wonderful day.”

Three cheers were then led by Trowbridge town crier Trevor Heeks.

The Duchess of Cornwall then met children from North Bradley Primary School.

Headteacher Janette O’Brien who said: “It’s a lifetime experience for them, something they will look back on and remember as a significant part of their life.They are very excited.”

Camilla then made her way to the Wiltshire Council marquee, stopping en route to meet sensory garden volunteer Glayne Greenaway.

Mrs Greenaway said: “I said ‘Welcome to Trowbridge’ then she saw my badge and said ‘I’ll have to come and visit you in the garden’.

“I’m a great Royalist. I’m thrilled to bits.”

The Duchess toured the show ground with the Lord Lieutenant John Bush and show chairman Mike Williams and after leaving the Wiltshire Council marquee, she visited the Wiltshire Bobby Van Trust, a charity she is president of, where she was presented with a pin badge.

Jenny Shaw, director of the trust, said: “Camilla is very supportive, we are very lucky, she comes to most of our events. I think it’s a fantastic opportunity for her to be here and we are very lucky to have her.”

And Camilla wasted no time in sampling the wares of various stalls and firms from around the county.

Jokingly, she said: “I’m having a very good shop.”

Purchases included a £16 jug from 17-year-old Nathan Pictor, who works at the family-run White Horse Pottery in Westbury with his dad Trevor, as well as a pair of striped denim dungarees for her grandchild from the Bradford on Avon shop, Giraffe and Me, run by 18-year-old Maxine Maurissen and two Russian dolls for £50 from the Belarusian Ray of Hope charity stand.

The dungarees will be a present for Camilla's daughter Laura, who is expecting twins. But Miss Maurissen only had one pair in the size Camilla wanted.

She was also given a pair of navy silk lined gloves by Dents in Warminster, who have made gloves for the Duchess before, and a bag of produce from the Neston Park farm shop and tasted some of their mature cheddar cheese.

In the Melksham tent, she met up again with the Melksham Pearlies, Mike and Jeanette Nash.

The Duchess remembered meeting the couple at a Wiltshire Air Ambulance Appeal event in March, when they were out of uniform.

Jeanette said: “We didn’t have our costumes on then, and Camilla said ‘why don’t you have them on?’, so she remembered us this time.

“She is very nice, very friendly and said our costumes were beautiful and that we should wear them all the time.”

As she moved through the showground to the show halls, the Duchess stopped off to have a go at a darts game, but missed the board completely on two attempts and was outside the scoring zone with a third.

She said: "A flop, I'm afraid. Sorry about that, I'll get some more practice."

In one hall the Duchess sampled a shot of cider and had her spectacles cleaned by Kent magician turned businessman Nathan Fuller, 32, from Kent.

She said: "That's a challenge. You'll have a lot of people queuing up."

One of the charities close to the Duchess heart was the Wiltshire Air Ambulance and she stopped at its stand to find out how fundraising was going.

Camilla said: "It's such a fantastic service. Every time I see it (the air ambulance) I know it's off to save another person's life. It's just so important."

Appeal co-ordinator Melanie Gee said: "She asked me how the fundraising was going and I said it has been an incredible year for us.

"She said she hopes she might be able to lend a hand in the future. She is a keen supporter."

The Duchess was later taken into the Civic Hall where she met the Burgermeister, or mayor, of Leer, Trowbridge's twin town. The link between the two towns is 20 years old this year.

Camilla sampled Leer's East Frisian tea, and witnessed a traditional ceremony.

The mayor of Leer, Wolfgang Kelner, said: "We gave her tea and sweets and she said she'd give them to her daughter.

"She says she will come to Germany and perhaps visit us in Leer.

"I liked meeting her. She is very famous in Germany and Prince Charles is famous too. When we have the photo in our newspaper I will be the king!"

Royal fan Elizabeth Hunter-Stanley, 64, from Chippenham, asked for an impromptu photograph.

"I came here just to see Camilla, I love the Royal family and have always wanted to meet her, so I just asked for a photo when she walked past and she agreed," she said.

It seems the Duchess could be about to start up her own colony of bees to produce Highgrove honey after receiving advice from a bee keeper.

Camilla admired a hive of bees belonging to Chris Rawlings, of the West Wilts Beekeepers, and said she had been considering starting bee keeping herself.

Mr Rawlings spoke to Camilla about the art of bee keeping and gave her a pot of honey.

Her interest in hives and bees came after she had to called in a bee keeper from Melksham to deal with a swarm which had infiltrated Highgrove last month.

"She said she was very interested in how the swarm was dealt with and that she would like to keep bees, so I spoke to her about how she could get started and gave her some information," he said.

"Highgrove would be an ideal setting because there a lots of flowering trees and gardens."

Following the launch of the show, the Duchess went onto Knorr-Bremse Rail Systems in Westinghouse Way, Bowerhill, to present the firm with a Queen's Award for Enterprise, for the company's innovation in design and technology.

Knorr-Bremse, orginally Westinghouse Brakes, was founded in 1881 and specialise in braking technology for trains and rail equipment and systems.

If you have any photos of Camilla at the West Wilts Show, we would like to see them. You can email them to wtimes@newswilts.co.uk