From the arrival of electricity to the effects of the coronavirus pandemic, almost a century of life in a north Norfolk village has been documented in a book written by its oldest man.

Alec Reynolds was born in Trimingham in 1926 and has lived all his life in the village.

For the past ten years, he has been contributing his reminiscences in a feature called Alec's Mardle to the monthly village bulletin, the Trimingham Newsletter.

Now those 'mardles' - the old Norfolk word meaning an informal chat - have been collected into a book, which was published in July, looking at village life in the old days.

Mr Reynolds said: "The biggest change was to see the water coming through the village.

"Years ago we all had a village pump.

"And the electricity, which came in 1935."

Back then, Mr Reynolds and his friends would go to a dairy farm, one of the first places in the village to get electricity, and watch in amazement as the light was switched on.

Mr Reynolds was born in The Buildings, now known as Coastguard Cottages.

When he was four-and-a-half years old he went to Trimingham Primary School, starting a few months early because his elder sister Daphne would not go to school without him.

The school closed when he was five-years-old and he then went to Overstrand School.

At the age of 13 he left school and started work as a farm labourer. When he was 37 he got a job with Norfolk County Council highways, working his way up to team leader.

He retired when he was 65.

He joined Trimingham Parish Council at the age of 35, and for a while he was chairman.

He married Margaret, who had been a land girl in Trimingham, in 1946. They lived in a house on the cliff before moving into Lilac Cottage on Church Street in 1956, staying there ever since.

Mr Reynolds said: "I'm quite pleased to think I have lived my whole life in the same village and that people get to know what I've done."

The book has been published with the help of village archivist Dot Bradley and printed by Patrick Carpmael.

Ms Bradley said: "I love history, so I think it's good that people can read about what life was like before, before everything was electronic and modernised."

Alec's Mardle still appears every month in the Trimingham Newsletter.