LURKING behind its old-fashioned exterior, a Colchester hardware shop is at the forefront of modern technology.

Jacks Famous Supplies, known to canny shoppers for stocking everything from sledges to sledgehammers and tarpaulins to tea towels, has its own website.

The St Nicholas Street emporium is among a number of traditional and specialist retailers with shops on the High Street and the internet.

Owner David Williams said the website was a response to the fact that the business was no longer just competing with other shops in Colchester.

"The shop may look like it's just coming out of the 19th century, but we're up against the internet like every other business," he said.

Also online is Crouch Street delicatessen H Gunton, with its website selling Colchester tea towels and oven gloves alongside the shop's coffee and tea blends.

Owner Keith Gunton said: "We have a regular customer in Birmingham who buys a specific blend of coffee that he can't get elsewhere, and a few hampers at Christmas go overseas."

The world-famous Colchester Native oysters are available through the internet, with the prized shellfish packed and dispatched from Mersea Island.

Oysterman Richard Haward, whose family run the Company Shed in West Mersea, said orders through his website are "slowly increasing".