AN 80-year-old landlady has pulled her last pint after 53 years at the helm of a Llanidloes pub.

Ruby Holmes has been living and working at the Crown & Anchor since 1965, but it’s all change at the 16th century coaching house following her decision to retire.

“I’m 80 now and no-one in the family wanted to take it on,” Ruby said of the pub in Long Bridge Street.

“These days you need to do food and run it as a B&B. I’ve never really done that, but the new licensees are going to.”

Ruby is a Llanidloes farm girl but when she fell in love with the landlord of the Crown & Anchor, the course of her life changed forever.

“I married the landlord and that was it,” Ruby recalls.

The landlord was Cecil Holmes.

After he and Ruby married they ran the pub together for years, until he suffered ill health.

“He had a stroke at 57 and I nursed him, ran the pub and looked after our son for 18 years before Cecil died,” said Ruby.

“Our son, Graham, did work at the pub for a time but it wasn’t for him. You have to love it, and I did.

“People say me leaving is the end of an era. The pub was a big part of my life. Do I miss it? Of course I do. I loved it!

“And I’ve been there so long I’ve seen lots of generations of the same family. The hours were long, but I loved it. It was a great way of life.”

See this week’s Machynlleth & Llanidloes paper for the full story, available in shops and as a digital edition now