Somerset left-hander Trescothick followed his nine-and-a-half hour 219 in the first innings with an unbeaten half-century as the home side made light work of the 110 needed for victory.

He was dropped on one by Andrew Hall in the slips, off Makhaya Ntini, and despite losing captain Michael Vaughan to the second ball after lunch, England eased home shortly after 2pm.

Trescothick's disciplined, marathon first-innings effort allowed England to eke out a 120-run first-innings lead and the bowlers backed that up by dismissing South Africa for 229 within an hour of the final morning.

Steve Harmison and Martin Bicknell both claimed Test-best figures as England completed one of their greatest-ever turnaround wins.

Surrey bowler Bicknell, 34, picked up two wickets in consecutive deliveries after the tourists entered the final day with an advantage of 65 runs.

His double strike reduced the opposition to 193 for eight, continuing England's domination since the opening day when a win appeared extremely unlikely with the Proteas 290 for one.

History also remained against them, given that England had never before conceded as many as 484 in the first innings of a home Test and come out victorious.

But Durham paceman Harmison finished things off, to finish with four for 33 from 19.2 overs, for Trescothick and Vaughan to launch their team towards their triumph.

Alec Stewart, playing in his 133rd and final Test, led England out to mark the occasion, gaining another standing ovation from a crowd which was almost a full-house by the time Trescothick struck the winning runs - an edge off Jacques Kallis which flew to the third-man boundary.

Within 15 minutes of play, Stewart was claiming his fourth catch of the match after Bicknell found the edge of Mark Boucher's bat.

The crowd were back on their feet immediately as Andrew Hall prodded to midwicket first ball to provide Bicknell, who failed to convert the hat-trick chance, with his first-ever Test four-wicket haul.

That left all hope resting on the shoulders of Shaun Pollock, who struck a flurry of boundaries before hitting Harmison straight to Graham Thorpe.

Harmison completed the demise with the aid of a brilliant diving catch at short leg by Ed Smith, after the ball looped over his head from the splice of Ntini's bat.

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