It's not hard to fall under the powerful spell of this enchanting traditional countryside pub with its own sprawling orchard beer garden when every visit is like a voyage into a vanished world.
The Fruiterers Arms in Uphampton near Worcester is tucked away off a country lane and may be one of the Worcestershire countryside's best kept secrets (although an open one to those in the know about great pubs).
If you're coming from Worcester, take a left off the A449 after you pass the Ombersley junction, leaving behind (thank God) the monotonous drone of traffic and the garish marigold yellow speed cameras looming like triffids.
Quickly, much more quickly than you might expect, you seem to find yourself in a land that time forgot as if you have strayed through some rift in space and time into an idyllic vanished England.
If you see how cheap the beer is, you might be convinced you have gone back to bygone days.
The sound of traffic fades to a whisper and soon enough disappears altogether between the high hedges.
Here it is still possible to imagine you have travelled back to a lost England where rural Worcestershire moved to a softer, more seasonal rhythm.
Landlady Julie Taylor, asked what she loves about the pub, said: "Everything - the people and the countryside - the tranquillity. A lot of people don't know we're here. It's just the sign that gives us away."
Many of the customers are local - farmers, anglers, shooters - although Robert Plant, former lead singer and lyricist of the rock band Led Zeppelin, has been in a few times. He clearly has impeccable taste.
The pub sign - recently judged by CAMRA to be the best in Worcestershire - sets the tone at once for it features a distinguished figure who looks not unlike the county's great composer, Sir Edward Elgar, staring out into the distance.
Painted by local man Ian Grimshaw, it earned high praise as the winning sign in Pint Taken, the award winning Worcestershire County CAMRA magazine, and it somehow evokes very well the county's Halcyon Days.
Step inside the lounge and you are in for an even greater surprise. Carriage lamps and horse brasses gleam beneath dark old beams. Swords, guns, bedpans and agricultural equipment from the past are mounted on the walls.
The pub does not serve hot food but pub snacks and real ales, the way many customers like their pubs - a 'proper pub' as some would call it.
The Fruiterers Arms was built and opened in 1848, by Thomas May - the first of four generations of sons, all christened Thomas May, to be, in turn, the pub's landlord.
Tucked in a corner is painted wheel of the kind you might expect to see on a Vardo but the grandest thing in the room is perhaps the elegant grandfather clock, made by Sam Thorp of Abberley (a man still comes in every Sunday to wind it).
Here perhaps is a safe harbour to hide from the relentless tides of the modern world and, quite literally, wind the clock back.
Landlady Julie Taylor, 61, and husband Will, also 61, are both originally from the Black Country (her from Coseley and him from Tipton) and have loved the area since they bought a caravan here.
Mrs Taylor, who describes the pub as a 'hidden countryside gem', has been running it since April.
"The main thing people love is the atmosphere. It's friendly. Everyone is welcome. We are dog friendly too. It's a proper, traditional pub," she said.
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The beer is described by the landlady as 'extremely cheap' - £3.80 for a pint of HPA which she says is around £1.20 cheaper than the same pint in the village (Ombersley).
"All the customers come in here and complain about the price of beer in the other pubs," she said.
The Fruiterers serves real ales including Wye Valley Bitter, HPA and Butty Bach (Wye Valley Brewery) and Worcestershire Way from the Bewdley Brewery.
The pub is open between noon and 11pm every day.
One loyal customers is Mick Shears, 81, next year and he's such a part of the furniture, he has his coat-of-arms on the wall at the pub which is owned by Steve Lunnon.
If you love great pubs, the Fruiterers is certainly ripe for a visit.
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