A couple are busy rebuilding the image of a pub tarnished by its previous landlord.

Phil and Hazell Burgess took over the Queen's Own pub in Woodstock three months ago and say they are now putting it back on the map.

"The past is nothing to do with us, though a lot of people were reminded of it last week," Mr Burgess told the Oxford Mail.

Previous landlord Timothy Ward, 42, faces a possible jail sentence after being convicted of affray by Witney magistrates last Thursday.

The court heard that he burst into the pub's toilets, brandishing an air rifle at three young drinkers.

He now lives in Norfolk and returns to court next month for sentencing. Another landlady was appointed after Ward but she left suddenly and the brewery, Ushers of Trowbridge, closed down the pub for five weeks. Mrs and Mrs Burgess were appointed in August. The brewery's innkeeper director Peter Grove performed the official reopening. Mr Burgess said: "It has been going very well. The place was closed for a month, so we almost had to build up the trade again from scratch. People have to realise there are new landlords here and those who have come in have been really friendly and liked the welcome.

"I've been in the licensed trade all my life. My parents kept a pub and my wife has also been in pubs before. We enjoy the pub life and building up a regular lot of customers."

The historic pub, in Oxford Street, dates back to 1614 and is famous not only for being the oldest pub in town, but also the smallest.

It was nicknamed the Tuppenny Tube by Victorian railway workers from London who described the then long walk from the bar to the toilets as "like a tuppenny Tube ride".

The couple are building up a busy pub social life with quiz nights, live music and folk club meetings.

Converted for the new archive on 30 June 2000. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.