By Ian Bred, Norfolk Correspondent

Rival cheap supermarkets Aldi and Lidl have joined forces to test door-to-door deliveries in Norfolk.

Using newfangled wheeled carts, horses will be able to carry essential supplies of turnips and pigs trotters to hovels from Downham Market to Hemsby.

The development is a major coup for Norfolk, which recently got its first mobile phone.

Local shoppers will now be able to ride or trudge to their local store, buy items from the shelves and then go home again and wait for delivery.

Within weeks, the supermarkets will bring the items on their horse-drawn carts that can reach speeds of up to 4mph.

It is hoped that when electrickery is introduced to the rural county, and the internet is invented there, people will even be able to order their shopping online.

Retail expert Lorraine Fisher, 34, said: “This is a major step forward for the people of Norfolk.

“Horse-drawn carts will introduce supermarket door-to-door deliveries for the first time. Most part of the county will be able to order, but there are still many towns with mud tracks instead of roads, so they will have to wait.”

She added there was more exciting news for Norfolk shoppers on the horizon. “There were whispers some shops will be stocking soap for Norfolk people from next year,” she said.