Alex Arkell joins the family business

A popular Oxford pub has not only been given a new lease of life by its owners, Arkell's Brewery, but it is also being run by one of the family as 23-year old Alexander Arkell, the youngest son of brewery chairman James Arkell, is learning the business from the sharp end.

Alexander Arkell took over behind the bar at the newly-named Rusty Bicycle (formerly The Eagle Tavern), on Magdelen Road in Cowley in January, with his friend and co-landlord Chris Manners - after almost a year learning the ropes.

For six months last year, Alexander worked as a barman, drayman and cellarman, and helped out around the brewery to find out what it really means to go into the family business. Now he's added cleaner and caretaker to his CV as he and a friend, Chris Manners, are running the Oxford pub between them, and doing all the jobs there too.

"It's been a fantastic few months," said Alexander, who graduated from university in 2007. "Having been born and brought up in a brewing family, I feel I've had real ale running through my veins since I was small, but it's only when you work at the brewery and in its pubs properly that you begin to understand the traditions and the people that work there every day, and understand how deeply the brewing industry is embedded into many people's daily lives."

Chairman, James Arkell, is delighted that a second son had decided to come into the family business: His oldest son, George, is now a board director having joined the brewery in 1999, the same year that the Brewery bought The Rusty Bicycle.

"Alexander has worked hard over the last year to understand the brewing and pub business. Our landlords are very important to us and not everyone is capable of running a pub, looking after their customers properly and most importantly, making sure they come back again and again. If Alexander wasn't ready, then we wouldn't have allowed him to take over the pub."

Alexander is getting few family privileges: To keep outgoings to a minimum, he and Chris are not employing many extra staff, preferring to clean and maintain the pub themselves. The pub is open evenings only, because there is little trade in this largely residential area of Oxford during the day.

With no pub kitchen, the landlords are not doing food yet, but when the business is more established, they may look at developing this side of the business.

Arkell's bought The Eagle Taven, as it was, in 1999 - its third pub in Oxford. The brewery decided on a change of name when the pub was being refurbished, although the look and feel of a traditional pub still remains. This is not the first time that the pub has changed its name, it was almost certainly called The Robin Hood more than a century and a half ago, but changed its name to The Eagle in 1871.