A DORCHESTER pub has been named town pub of the year by the West Dorset Branch of the Campaign for Real Ale (CAMRA).

Tom Brown's landlady Jo-Ann von Weichardt said regulars are 'delighted' their favourite haunt has won the award.

The pub will go up against the Three Elms Inn, at North Wootton, near Sherborne, which was named West Dorset rural pub of the year in the same round of the competition.

CAMRA members now have to decide which of the two will go on to represent West Dorset at the regional round of the competition.

Michel Hooper-Immins, of West Dorset CAMRA, said: "Judges were impressed by the quality improvement at Tom Brown's, and by the variety of beers brewed only a few miles away."

Tom Brown's was West Dorset pub of the year in 1994 and 2002, and the Three Elms last won the accolade in 1991.

The Three Elms became a UK first in 2011 when owners John and Sue Barker took over the village's Post Office when it was threatened with closure, and offered the services from inside the pub.