A TRADITIONAL country pub in Worcestershire has been judged to have the best pub sign in the county - and it was painted by a talented customer.

The Fruiterers Arms pub in Uphampton near Worcester has been judged by the editors of a Campaign for Real Ale magazine to have the best pub sign in the whole county following a competition.

The pub's landlady, Julie Taylor, who has been at the pub since April, submitted a photo of the sign to Pint Taken, the award winning Worcestershire County CAMRA magazine.

Mrs Taylor was delighted when their sign proved the cream of the crop.

"I think it's wonderful and it's painted by a local artist, one of the customers called Ian Grimshaw. It's lovely. I was ecstatic when I found out we had won. I've never won anything in my life," she said.

She added: "We are a proper traditional country pub with real ales."

The pub sign shows a dapper-looking gentleman with a white moustache, hat and waistcoat carrying a basket of fruit who bears a certain resemblance to celebrated Worcestershire composer Sir Edward Elgar. 

The Fruiterers serves real ales including Wye Valley Bitter, HPA and Butty Bach (Wye Valley Brewery) and Worcestershire Way from the Bewdley Brewery. 

Pub staff decided to submit a photo of the sign when they heard about the competition in August and saw they had won when they looked at the autumn edition of Pint Taken.

A spokesperson for CAMRA said in the magazine: "You will recall that we launched a competition earlier this year to find the Best Pub Sign in Worcestershire.

"Well, a selection of entries were received and judged by a team consisting of myself as Pint Taken Editor, Iain Perks membership secretary of The Inn Sign Society and Ellie Salsbury a Pub Writer and regular contributor to this magazine.

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"Following much deliberation we all agreed that the winning entry was the Fruiterers Arms in Uphampton.

"The entry was sent in by Julie Taylor who submitted her entry saying, 'The Fruiterers is a quaint little country pub in the district of Ombersley village and we are very proud of our sign which was painted by a very talented local man'.

"Congratulations to Julie who wins a case of Bewdley Beers - kindly donated by Bewdley Brewery - and a yearʼs membership to The Inn Sign Society, kindly donated by the The Inn Sign Society. The other finalists in the competition were Queen Elizabeth Inn, Farmers Arms, Bell at Pensax, Hampstall Inn."