REMARKABLY, a country pub near the village of Ombersley, has now been owned and run by the same family for more than 150 years.

The Mays of The Fruiterers Arms, Uphampton, are clearly an unsung legend in UK pub history.

There can be very few other families across the country who have been in continuous ownership of the same pub for such a long period of time.

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.

I've been learning about this dynasty of publicans from the present Thomas (Tom) May, current licensee of The Fruiterers, and

his brother Edward (Ted), who together run the family hostelry. Their memories have been aided by research carried out for them a few years ago by John Richards.

The Fruiterers also has a further claim to fame nowadays, as the base of the Canon Royall Brewery which produces up to 600 gallons a week of real ales. These are, of course, readily available at The Fruiterers but are also supplied to other pubs around the country where customers are fervent fans of "Real Ale."

The saga of the amazing Mays of Uphampton began in the early part of the 19th Century with Thomas May, the eldest son of bricklayer John May and his wife Sarah. Thomas was a "yeoman" farmer, and a title deed dated 1848, records that he bought a cottage called The News at Uphampton, together with outbuildings and half-an-acre of pasture land, from a Sarah Taylor for £200.

He was aged 29 and immediately had the Uphampton cottage rebuilt as home for his family - wife Ann and two small boys, James and Thomas. A national census of the period describes him by this time as being a fruiterer, which indicates he must also have acquired adjoining fruit-growing land.

The enterprising Thomas May clearly spotted too, that there was a pressing local need for a drinking place for those living and working on the land in and around Uphampton - one of the 17 hamlets historically comprising the Ombersley Manor.

Under the Duke of Wellington's Beer House Act of 1830, he paid two guineas for an excise license and turned a room of his cottage into a small bar, choosing to call his tiny tavern The Fruiterers Arms after his own occupation.

Victorian drinking hours then extended to 18 hours a day - from 4am to 10 pm seven days a week, closing only during Divine Service and on Christmas Day and Good Friday.

Thomas May also opened a small brewery at the rear of the beer-house, producing a popular Ombersley drink - a strong and malty mild.

The founder of The Fruiterers was mine host at the pub for 23 years, until his death in 1871 at the age of 52, and for the following seven years the licence was held by his widow Ann until their son, Thomas was old enough to take over at the helm.

His brother James was serving in the Royal Marines aboard HMS Royal Oak.

Thomas May the Second was to be landlord of The Fruiterers Arms for half-a-century and lived at the cottage-cum-pub with wife Emma, a girl from a local family, and son Thomas.

Like his father before him, Thomas combined the roles of farmer and publican, farming nearby acres while his wife helped out in the pub during the day.

When he died in 1928, his widow Emma held the licence for three years until their only child Thomas May the Third took over in 1931.

He married a local girl whose Christian name was, by coincidence, May, making her Mrs May May. She was May Elizabeth Franklin, whose parents kept the Kings Arms at Ombersley, for some years just after the First World War.

In the early 1930s, home brewing at The Fruiterers Arms came to an end after 80 years and the brew-house was pulled down, but Thomas May the Third continued the family tradition of farming together with pub keeping.

During the Second World War, he also allowed the development of a caravan site on his land adjacent to The Fruiterers, and this has developed over the years into a substantial mobile homes and chalet park, still in the ownership of the May family.

This Thomas was "a very likeable and respected local personality and convivial landlord" and served as an Ombersley parish councillor and school governor for several years. He was also for a time secretary of the local Conservative Association.

He and his wife, who very much assisted in running the pub, had four children - Thomas, Edward, Vera (now Mrs Hill living at Uphampton) and Ruth (now Mrs Bywaters of Kidderminster).

When Thomas the Third died in 1966, at the age of 82, the licence of the Fruiterers Arms passed to his son Thomas, who has run the pub for the past 36 years with his brother Ted. The two also perpetuate the family's unbroken tradition of farming, tending 30 acres of nearby land as a market garden enterprise, growing such crops as sugar beet, purple sprouting, potatoes and beans. It's some decades, however, since the Mays grew soft fruit like the pub's founder.

The present Thomas's wife Eileen serves at The Fruiterers during the day while he's out farming, and their son - the fifth Thomas May - is much involved in the market garden enterprise, though whether he might eventually succeed his father at the pub to maintain the remarkable family line is uncertain.

Tom and Eileen's other son, James, occasionally helps out at the pub in his leisure time, and they also have a daughter, Deborah, who lives at Fernhill Heath.

Ted May, like his father before him, was an Ombersley parish councillor for about 10 years.

The Fruiterers Arms was substantially altered in 1973, particularly with the addition of a large side extension to create a lounge bar and new lavatories.

However, the old barn nearby was fully preserved and still looks today as it did at least 150 years ago. It's said that some of its timbers were originally part of a mediaeval black-and-white house which stood near the spot.

The Fruiterers was named Pub of the Year three times during the 1990s, either for the Hereford-Worcester area or in its district of Worcestershire.

Home-brewing returned to The Fruiterers in 1993, though the brewery set up at the rear of the pub is not run by the May brothers but is rented out to Geordie, Jim Wonders who lives at Kidderminster. He formerly ran a small brewery in Shropshire, for nearly five years.

His Canon Royall Brewery now produces up to 17 barrels a week, each of 36 gallons, filled with real ales bearing such names as King's Shilling, Arrowhead and Muzzle Loader. They are obviously supplied to The Fruiterers but are also in demand at other real ale pubs around the country.

How does Thomas May the Fourth explain the success of The Fruiterers Arms, still a thriving pub today after no fewer than 154 years in his family's ownership?

"We've always tried to serve some decent beer, and in a warm, friendly and traditional atmosphere," he said.

n As an interesting footnote, I spotted in a Worcester directory of 1840, that there was a William May, "victualler" at the New Inn, The Shambles.

I wonder, was he related to Thomas May who founded The Fruiterers eight years later?