ANN Ellse, who has died aged 80, was landlady of the Turf Tavern in its glory days and was a popular figure on the city’s hospitality scene for more than three decades.

Mrs Ellse ran the famous Turf Tavern throughout the 1960s and early 1970s with her husband Wally.

Many considered it to be the pub’s finest days and credit the couple with creating the Oxford institution that exists today.

After they divorced she opened one of the country’s first gastro pubs in Bledington before returning to Oxford to buy The Victoria in Jericho.

She continued working in the hospitality industry in Oxford into the 1990s and was an extremely popular figure.

Her son Jon said she was an ‘immensely strong, generous and inspirational woman’ who had a love of people.

Ann Ellse (née Davies) was born on May 24, 1938, to parents Violet and Cedric Davies, who worked at The Pressed Steel factory in Cowley.

She grew up in Oxford with her brothers Colin and Cedric and went to the Central Girls School in New Inn Hall Street.

After leaving school she began her career in the hospitality industry – a career that would see her take on and run some of Oxford’s finest establishments over more than three decades.

From the early 1960s she ran The Turf Tavern with her husband Wally Ellse – during what many considered to be the glory days of one of Oxford’s most historic pubs.

Their double act arguably create the Oxford institution that the pub has become today.

They had two children together, Christopher (1964) and Jon (1965), who followed his parents into the industry and owns The Perch, Mamma Mia and Portabello Restaurant.

But after divorcing in the mid 1970s Mrs Ellse bought what she described as a ‘run down barn of a pub on a village green’ that she and her brother Colin transformed into The King’s Head in Bledington, near Kingham.

It became one of the country’s first destination gastro pubs.

She was always on the lookout for new challenges though, and moved again with her brother to develop Haseley House Hotel near Warwick.

During these years she began to miss being in Oxford and returned to the city at the beginning of the 1980s to buy and refurbish The Victoria pub in Walton Street.

She settled in Jericho and remained in the area long after selling the pub.

In fact she opened a shop in Walton Street shortly after leaving the pub in the late 1980s – Afrikiko.

The shop, which stemmed from her love of Ghana, specialised in imported African arts and crafts.

While she enjoyed her time there she closed the shop after just a few years.

A return to hospitality was inevitable though and, at the beginning of the 1990s, she took over The Westgate, which she developed with her sons Chris and Jon and was given one of the first late licences in Oxford.

In her later life she moved to Jimena de la Frontera in Cadiz, Spain, where she enjoyed exploring her love of reading and poetry and walking her dog Billy.

When she was diagnosed with cancer she returned to Oxford, where she spent her final years living in Stanley Road – enjoying the company of her grandchildren Jamie, Izzy and Lucas.

She died on May 28 and was predeceased by her ex-husband Wally, her brother Cedric and her son Christopher. She is survived by her brother Colin, son Jon, three grandchildren and a great granddaughter Georgia.

A public service will take place at St Barnabas Church in Jericho on Friday, June 15, from 12.30pm.