Purbeck 'paperboy' Mark Pembroke has been delivering the Swanage & Wareham Advertiser for more than three decades - and at the age of 83 shows few signs of calling it a day.

The octogenarian, who has been a regular sight in Swanage, delivers newspapers on his bicycle.

He used to even advertise local events from the saddle using a megaphone while wearing his top hat.

Proud son Guy told the Echo: "He recently completed 30 years of delivering the Advertiser.

"This is longer than his first career running his own employment agency for chartered accountants in the city of London.

"His lengthy service deserves recognition."

At the peak of his paperboy days, Mark not only did six rounds of the Advertiser but he also delivered the early morning papers, Mondays to Saturdays, as well as the Purbeck Gazette, throughout Swanage, Langton Matravers, Worth Matravers and Corfe Castle.

He's delivered the Advertiser in High Street, Day’s Road, Bell Street, Victoria Avenue, Priests Road, Mariners Drive and Durlston.

Guy explained: "All these entailed going up long drives and/or steps. He would fill in for other people if they took sick or went on holiday.

"On top of all this, while he was on his rounds during the summers, he advertised markets in Swanage, Wareham and Weymouth - among other things.

"He would hand out leaflets to day-trippers as they alighted from their coaches, ride his bike around town with a leaflet stuck in his top hat, much to the consternation of some car drivers."

On market days he would traverse from one end of the beach to the other doing the same thing.

Local boatmen even took him across the bay and he hailed sunbathers and swimmers from his megaphone.

Guy added: "In 2000, age 65, he retired from the megaphone advertising for markets, but he still delivered the Advertiser and joined a cycling group by which means he discovered most of the pubs in Dorset.

"At age 70 plus he could still cycle up Kingston Hill, and the one into Corfe. He was the fittest man in Swanage for his age - and still is.

"At 83 he only delivers the Advertiser and has the pick of seven easier rounds, in the town and closer to home.

"Full retirement is perhaps a little way off."