Norfolk's Dennis Williams puts in a full day's graft at an age when most of us are pulling on our slippers and puffing on our pipes.

Now aged 85, he's a hard-working member of the North Walsham and Dilham Canal Trust's regular volunteer work parties.

When he isn't filling the cement mixer with shovels of sand, he's sawing up trees, clearing choking vegetation and burning it on bonfires, alongside other volunteers working to restore the 19th-century waterway, Norfolk's only sailing canal with locks.

Mr Williams, from Blofield, said: 'I enjoy it - you have a good laugh. It's physical work and it keeps you active.'

Work parties usually meet once a month on a Sunday, from 9.30am to about 4pm.

The trust is working to improve the neglected canal, once nearly nine miles long, by restoring structures which will bring 2.5 miles of the upper canal back into full navigable use.