Two foresters who have spent more than 90 years between them ensuring the health and future of woodlands at the Lexham Hall Estate near Swaffham have received long service awards.

Roy Clarke, 66, from East Lexham, joined the estate staff straight from school 51 years ago, following in the footsteps of his father, a farmworker on the estate. His first job was as a forestry worker but he has been head forester since 1980.

His colleague Peter Hooks, 56, from Litcham, also started work with the estate straight from school just over a decade later and has worked as under-forester.

Lexham Hall's Neil Foster said: 'Post-second world war the focus has been on the re-generation of the badly damaged woodlands where no significant planting had been done for 200 years and which had been ravaged by gales and timber requisition for the war effort.'

Royal Forestry Society president Nicholas Halsey said: 'The work that Roy and Peter have put in over the past 50 and 40 years respectively will ensure the estate's woodlands have been revitalised and will continue to thrive for many generations to come, enhancing the local landscape and biodiversity as well as ensuring a supply of timber and wood fuel.'