With the 125th anniversary of the Great Yarmouth Cooperative Society next year one Great Yarmouth woman has been drawing her dividends longer than most.

Joyce Harvey, 96, has held a dividend card for 78 years, becoming a member of the scheme - which pays out a share of profits to members - age 18.

She met her late husband, Harold - known as Dick to his friends - while working as a sorting office clerk age 14. He was the young man who pushed the bread trays around for the bakers at the base in Middle Market Road, before the second world war.

Next year will be the anniversary of the society's founding, which today forms part of the East of England Cooperative Society. Local historian Scott Grimmer is carrying out a research project, collecting memories of the society that was once so prominent.

Joyce, who lives at Park House Residential Care Home on Alexandra Road, was alerted to Scott's project by a letter he wrote to the Mercury, printed September 14, and is keen to contribute.

Joyce left work after marrying aged 23, and continued to enjoy the benefits of being a Co-op worker as her husband remained working there.

Her wedding reception was at Co-op Hall in Middle Market Road, and the society played an important role in her life.

'They were very good to the people who worked for them,' Joyce said.

'We had outings and social evenings, they always put a float in the parade and there were dances and smokers evenings at Co-op Hall. They did a lot to entertain you in those days.

'They also did meetings for the mothers, to help them budget, shop for their children, and avoid debt.'

The Yarmouth Co-op traded in a number of fields, they had a dairy, butchers, men's outfitters and a warehouse, where all the goods for Co-ops in Norfolk were stored all originally on Middle Market Road before a lot of these moved to the Market Place in 1935.

She remembers when a dairy was built in place of the linen department, how people would visit the impressive new dairy simply to watch through the windows as the glass bottling machines worked and the factory bustled.

Scott said: 'If you shopped at Co-op pre war, you lived there, everything came from there.

'The Co-op was owned by the members.'

Joyce added: 'People did rely on the Co-op, it ran your book where you could pay for stuff later, some people relied on the dividends.

'It was different to what it is now, you could go in and sit down and they would serve you, now you go in and grab what you can. The baker would come to your door, and the milkman. You could write a list in your book, send it in, and they would bring your groceries to you, my mother could not see very well so that was a real help to her.'

Joyce's current eight-digit dividend card number contains the hour numbers that made up the original membership number she was given 78 years ago.

Contact Mr Grimmer on 01493 669190.