A landlady hopes the newly opened vintage tearooms based at her pub will become the 'in' place to go to during the daytime in a Norfolk village.

Delia Perry and husband Nick have spent about £4,000 creating the Acorn tearooms at the back of the Royal Oak pub in The Street, Poringland.

During the day they're hoping the rooms will be filled with people enjoying tea, cakes, fresh sandwiches and home-made scones, with the regular pub crowd returning in the evenings to play darts and enjoy a pint.

The tearooms officially open today but invited guests were given a preview at the pub yesterday.

Among the VIP guests enjoying toblerone tarta cake, lemon curd cake and other delights were two mums from Poringland.

Jackie Bailey said: 'I'm delighted it's open and I hope it does well. I think it's a great idea. Loads of mums meet up in the village and I'm sure they'll come here.'

Her friend Anna Cheeseman added: 'I've been saying for years that we need a tearoom where we can meet up in Poringland. We meet up for coffee at our homes now, but this will be somewhere else.'

Mrs Perry said she hopes the new signage at the tearooms and the kitsch Cath Kidston-style interior will pull in the crowds.

She said: 'Lunchtime trade is dying, although night trade is still fine. That's why I am opening tearooms at the pub, during the day, as we can no longer sustain just wet-led sales.

'The afternoon tea phenomenon is growing and we hope the village will benefit from the new wave of enthusiasm for all things nostalgic.

'The more people that see what we are trying to do, the better, perhaps just word of mouth might help us along. 'It's been a tough old year one way or another and this is a do or die for us.

'We've always been a 100p% wet-led pub that specialises in real ale and we hold a thrice-yearly beer festival.

'But we have now had to think outside the box and this seemed the best course of action for us because we didn't want to go the traditional pub food route because that would make us no different to the other pubs around us.'

She is calling on everyone that likes to lunch out to pay them a visit.

She added: 'We hope to see everyone from the lovely mums that wish to meet up while the children are at school, people who want a good natter with special friends or their favourite relative or someone who wants to take someone special out for a real treat. We want ladies at lunch, best friends taking their mums out, and retired people who want somewhere fancy to go.'

The tearooms will be open, Monday to Friday, 10am to 4pm, and in time they hope to extend their hours to include weekends.

• The Evening News has been urging people to return to pubs in our Love your Local campaign.

• To see more stories from the campaign visit www.eveningnews24.co.uk/loveyourlocal

• What are you doing to bring back the crowds at your pub? Email david.bale2@archant.co.uk