THE true jewels in the Cotswolds crown are its pubs.

Visit the Hollow Bottom at Guiting or The Fleece at Hillesley and you will know what I mean.

Take in The Keepers Arms at Quenington or The Butchers Arms at Sheepscombe and you will be totally convinced.

The pubs may be the jewels but the true heroes are those in charge, be they landlords or landladies. It was just over ten years ago that the most legendary died.

So many of you will know his name, it was Ric Sainty of the Old Spot in Dursley.

Supported by wife Ellie, Ric made the pub a true delight.

In 2007 it was named CAMRA national pub of the year, the first Gloucestershire pub to earn that title.

Charming and good natured (unless you ordered lager) Ric became a legend and now you can still order a pint of “Old Ric” which is brewed at nearby Uley.

Ric is one of a trio of Cotswold landlords who had the same principles, the others being Bob Ashley at the Twelve Bells in Cirencester and John Barnard at The Red Lion, Ampney St Peter.

These three were true beer men.

Lager was a yellow fizzy drink of inferior quality.

They looked after their beer with a true love and devotion. The best pint I and so many others drank was Timothy Taylor Landlord, served at The Red Lion.

John Barnard ran his small parlour pub with a quiet humanity and easy grace.

Everyone was soon drawn in to conversation of a wide ranging even philosophical nature.

There was no food, every evening being “the chef’s night off”.

If you asked for ice there was none as there had been “no frost that morning”.

Everyone visiting this pub, where you were served from a dresser there being no bar, left in finer fettle than when they arrived.

Bob Ashley at The Twelve Bells was different. To some he was arch, acid and acerbic. Others put it more simply, saying he was downright rude.

Asked by a gracious lady for a cup of coffee Bob replied “the only ladies who get coffee here receive it at 7.30am after they have slept with me’.

He was however a loyal friend and his beer was top notch.

Not all decisions Bob made were the right ones and his spell as landlord did not end as anyone would have wished.

His memory lives on however, especially among the Red Lion Monday Club, who with that pub now closed are well received where the beer and company is still good. The Twelve Bells! Where else?