Wychwood Brewery

Wychwood Brewery began in 1983, when brewer Paddy Glenny — who had trained in Germany — bought the site of Clinch's Brewery in the Cotswolds market town of Witney, a brewery that had stood closed since the 1960s. He named the new venture the Eagle Brewery, producing around 800 barrels a year in its early days.

In 1988, a local landlord commissioned a special beer for his daughter's wedding; the leftover batch, sold to the public afterwards, became an instant hit under the name Hobgoblin. The brewery was renamed Wychwood in 1990 after Glenny sold his shareholding, and Hobgoblin went on to become one of Britain's best-known dark ales, eventually reaching production of around 100,000 barrels a year.