GUINNESS, with its distinctive dark colour and well-known advertising legacy, needs little introduction for most.

And, proving that good things really do come to those who wait, the unveiling of an historic sign will secure the beverage’s Suffolk links for years to come.

For now a recently restored 1940s Guinness sign sits proudly at the Elveden Inn pub, on the Elveden Estate which has been the Guinness family home since 1894.

Thought to have been designed by John Gilroy, who created some of Guinness’ most famous advertisements, the sign depicts five pints of the black stuff below a clock.

Current head of the Guinness family, Lord (Arthur Edward Rory Guinness) Iveagh, unveiled the sign on “Arthur’s Day” at 17.59hrs, marking the year that Arthur Guinness signed a 9,000-year lease on a disused brewery at St James’s Gate, in Dublin. Lord Iveagh bought the sign two years ago on eBay for several hundreds of pounds.

“It’s a very old sign but we’ve renewed it and put it back together again with much TLC, and hopefully it will be here for many years to come,” he said.

“It’s taken a long time but all is well and, just like the beer which you have to wait for, we’ve had to wait for this. I’m so pleased visitors will come across the Guinness heritage and the story has been so successful that it’s really lovely to have the inn to display the very best of the history and the brewery.”

The sign was restored by local mural painter Ashe Ericksson and sits alongside other nods to the Guinness heritage within the inn’s walls – not least a flint toucan embedded in the side of the building.