Jenny Hursell, Clerk to Southwold Town Council for more than 25 years, has been made an MBE in the New Year's Honours List for her services to Southwold.

She took up the post on October 1, 1985 and finally retired in June this year.

Mrs Hursell said: 'I feel honoured, but also slightly embarrassed because so many other people do so much in Southwold.

'I am touched that people thought it worth putting my name forward for the honour.

I have enjoyed my post with the council and tried to carry out its wishes during that time.

The completion of the Millennium Hall project was one of the highlights of her time as clerk.

That role led her to becoming secretary of the town's Millennium Foundation.

She said: 'It was completed four years ago and it is doing really well. It is something permanent from my years and I was pleased to be part of it.'

For more than 15 years she was secretary and treasurer of the Southwold and Reydon Corps of Drums and was a governor of Southwold Primary School for many years as well as being volunteer reader at the school.

The award of the MBE has capped a notable year for Mrs Hursell.

As well as 2011 marking her retirement, she became a grandmother twice, and at the beginning of December she published her first book, Southwold Street Names a speculative history on how streets in the town got their names.