WHEN tiny Ivy was born last earlier this month little did she know she’d be the youngest of the four generations living and working in a thriving Gorse Hill pub.

The Duke of Edinburgh pub on Cricklade Street is a true family business. Landlord Mark Thomson’s son, Nathan, is cellar manager. Wife Allyson helps behind the bar after work. And Mark’s mother-in-law, Jan Sparrow, 72, and her husband Derek, 70, work as the pub’s cleaners.

And now there’s a new addition: ten-day-old Ivy, born to cellar manager Nathan and fiancée Tyffani Carlile, both 19, at the Great Western Hospital on June 16.

Grandfather-of-three Mark, 53, was born in Southampton and is a former professional darts player.

He said: “We all live in the pub and we all work in the pub.

"We’re all about family. This isn’t a job, it’s a way of life."

Even working with his mother-in-law doesn’t dampen Mark’s spirits: “You wouldn’t think so, but we all get on very well.”

For the last three years Mark has been joined behind the bar by Nathan – the only one of his three sons to follow him into the pub trade.

“I tend to treat him a little bit harder,” said Mark. “I can’t be seen to be lenient.”

Nathan, 19, said: “It’s brilliant – we all have a good laugh, although we keep it professional.”

Young Ivy ‘was a shock’, the lad said. “It took me out of work when I heard.”

Ivy, who sleeps in a nursery next to her parents’ bedroom above the pub, has already been in to the bar.

“She’s been in to meet all the locals,” Nathan said.

George Arkell, managing director at Arkell’s Brewery, which owns the Duke of Edinburgh pub, said: "It’s great to see the Thomsons keeping it in the family. In fact, there are almost as many generations of Thomson's working at The Duke of Edinburgh as there are Arkells running the brewery - we think that’s a wonderful way to run a business."