A Norfolk farm shop and cafe has noticed a sharp rise in its customers opting to pay using cash since the cost of living crisis.

White House Farm, located on the outskirts of Sprowston, stopped accepting notes and coins during the pandemic after a significant fall in shoppers choosing to pay using physical money.

The family-run site, however, decided to bring back cash transactions this year after customers said they wanted more choice of how to pay.

Since then, cash payments have soared and now accounts for 40pc of its takings.

Charlotte Gurney, co-owner of White House Farm, said: "We decided to scrap cash for a number of reasons including to speed up transactions, less room for error, accounting purposes and more people paying with cards during Covid.

"There were instances where this was not well received, as some customers said we had taken away their choice of payment.

"Conscious of this, and the hard economic times, we brought cash back and have noticed a shift in payment methods towards using cash.

"We will be holding our returning farmers markets on October 22 and will be expecting more cash transactions through the stall holders."

For a number of years cash transactions had been in decline and the pandemic has been cited as speeding up the demise of physical money due to retailers and customers seeing card transactions as a safer payment option.

Since the start of the cost of living crisis, however, there has been an upsurge in shoppers using notes and coins.

The Post Office reported that during August - usually a quiet month for cash transactions - its branches have handled a record amount of cash.

That month saw a total £3.45bn cash transactions across the UK - the first time the amount has exceeded £3.4bn in one month.

Post Office states that this was due, in part, to bank closures resulting in more people using its branches to withdraw and deposit money, but also because consumers are turning to cash during the cost of living crisis to help make budgeting easier.