But for the residents of Aldborough, North Norfolk, time really did stand still last week after they were hurled back into the digital dark ages by a five-day broadband blackout.

The quaint village community found itself completely cut off from the internet after a BT power box blew, and engineers reportedly experienced a delay in getting hold of a “specialist part” required to mend it.

The outage affected phone lines and left businesses scrambling to process payments, teenagers horrified at being left to watch television, and villagers reminiscing about the days when the only thing that went down was the pub’s last pint.

Aldborough Village Shop and Post Office (Image: Bruno Brown)

“It was chaos,” admitted Isaac Adams, 19, who works in the Aldborough Village Shop and Post Office.

“We couldn’t take card payments, though thankfully, the Post Office system was fine.

"But there were real worries about the older people. If someone had fallen or needed an ambulance, it could’ve been serious.”

For village pub landlord, Kent Laws, who has been running The Cricketers on The Green for the last three........

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