We’re in a digital age but 13 homes in Maidstone are still watching television in black and white.

The figure was revealed by TV Licensing as the number of homes across the country with licences for only watching colour free dropped below 12,000.

In the millennium, there were 212,000 nationally, and in 2003 it was 93,000.

In Kent the area with the most monochrome licences is Gravesend with 21, while Maidstone is fifth in the county at just 12.

The joint lowest is Gillingham and Rainham, where nine homes watch without colour.

Iain Logie Baird, associate curator at the National Media Museum in Bradford, who is also grandson of television inventor John Logie Baird, said: “Despite over 25 million people opting for a colour TV licence in the UK, it may be some time before the black and white television disappears completely from our living rooms.”

The cost of a black and white TV licence is frozen at £49 until 2016, while a colour licence costs £145.50.