EMBATTLED licensee Tony Okun is facing eviction from his village pub after refusing to hand the keys back to its owners on Tuesday in a modern day battle of Roundway.

Mr Okun, who runs the Oliver Cromwell in St Edith’s Marsh, near Devizes, with his wife Bev and son Christian, 23, is now taking legal advice to see if he can stay at the pub which is both his home and business.

But owners Enterprise Inns told him on Tuesday it would be instructing solicitors to obtain possession.

Mr Okun will hope his fight over the historic pub, built in the shadow of the downs where Cromwell’s Roundheads were defeated by the Royalists in 1643, will have a better outcome.

The pub chain gave Mr Okun a month to leave the premises just a week after he signed a tenancy agreement with them.

He believes Enterprise is in negotiation with businessmen who want to turn it into a curry house.

He said: “When the regional manager turned up I just told her we were not leaving. We have nowhere else to go to live as this is our home as well as our workplace.

“I refused to hand over the keys and now I am taking legal advice.”

He said that regional manager Isabelle Whitehouse told him to take the letter ending his tenancy to the council so he could be rehomed.

Mr Okun said: “She is living in a different world. There is no way that the council is going to find two adults without dependent children somewhere to live.

"I am 55 so I don’t know what I am going to do for a job.”

His wife, Bev, said: “This has had a terrible effect on our son Christian who has done a wonderful job as chef here but is now completely broken by what has happened.”

The couple are now pinning their hopes on finding a pub to run with a different brewery.

Mr Okun said: “Two days ago I said I didn’t want to have anything else to do with the pub trade but now I realise it is our best hope of work.

"We have turned this place around so hopefully that will help our cause.”

The family have been heartened by support from regulars including Michael White from Netherstreet who has written to Robert Walker, chairman of Enterprise Inns, to plead the Okuns’ case.

In his letter he said: “You should be proud to own an establishment with such a historical link, a link which matters to those of us fortunate enough live here.”

But Enterprise Inns has remained unmoved and said in a letter to Mr Okun: “We are terminating the agreement with effect from noon, on January 6, 2015.”

The pub is on the market for sale freehold for £295,000. Enterprise would not confirm if there were plans to turn it into a curry house.