History of the Wychwood Brewery

Wychwoob Brewery Gallery

The Wychwood Brewery is tucked away behind the main street of the market town of Witney, in the heart of the Oxfordshire Cotswolds. Witney is historically famous for its 3 Bs; its bread, its blankets and its beer. Brewing has taken place in Witney for centuries, originally carried out by pub owners and landlords, or more often their wives.

The first sizeable brewery in Witney was founded by John William Clinch, the son of a banking family, who established the brewery, close to the present site of Wychwood Brewery, in 1841 with water taken from the nearby River Windrush.

Clinch’s Brewery remained a local landmark and successful family enterprise in Witney for over 120 years. At one time Clinch's also owned seventy-one pubs, stretching between Oxford and Swindon, and as far North as Birmingham, including 14 individual pubs in Witney town itself. The Clinch's Brewery was well respected and renowned, and won numerous awards in the 1920s and 1930s. In 1961, the board decided to sell out to Courage. The Clinch's Brewery was closed shortly afterwards, marking the end of an era for Witney.

In 1983, the original Clinch's Brewery site was purchased by Paddy Glenny, an English brewer who had trained in Germany. Paddy christened it The Eagle Brewery - later changing this to Glenny Brewery. The Eagle Brewery was started in the cellar of the existing "Eagle Maltings" building which now houses the Wychwood brewery offices. Chris Moss joined Paddy in 1985, thus doubling the workforce. A small, entrepreneurial concern, Eagle Brewery started off brewing about 800 barrels a year.

In 1988 the brewery was asked to brew a special celebratory wedding beer for a local landlord for his daughter's wedding. Chris Moss created the ale of his life. The deliciously dark, rich brew became The Legendary Hobgoblin.

In 1990, the Eagle was re-named the Wychwood Brewery after the Ancient medieval Wychwood Forest which borders Witney. The brewery also brewed Witney Bitter and Wychwood Best in Cask and within a few years sales had risen to a highly respectable 12,000 barrels a year.

In January 1996 the first Hobgoblin beer in bottles was produced. The highly distinctive and quirky labels appealed immediately to a new, younger market for traditional English ales. A specially commissioned distinctive clear bottle was soon adopted, so as to show off Hobgoblin’s distinctive colour.

By 1997, Wychwood Brewery was producing nearly 30,000 barrels a year, including a full calendar of limited edition seasonal cask ales, under imaginative names and pump clip artworks. The brewery also owned 40 Hobgoblinns Pubs. Following the success of Hobgoblin in bottle, Wychwood continued to bottle some of the other most popular cask ales, Christmas and seasonal beers. The brewery gained a growing fan base, as keen on the beers as they were on the artwork and imagery of Wychwood brewery labels.

The Ancient Medieval Forest of The Wych Wood

Wychwood Brewery is named after The Royal Forest of Wychwood which was recorded in the Domesday Book in 1086, and covered much of what is now West Oxfordshire.  Much of the artwork for Wychwood beer labels depicts characters from myths and legends associated with the ancient medieval forest. 

The term 'forest' referred historically to areas where hunting rights were reserved for the Sovereign and included in this area would have been meadows, cultivated open fields, heaths and downs as well as woodlands.

You can just imagine the Hobgoblin trundling past and jeering at The Circle Master as he scamps around the fields looking for trouble.

Wychwood Local Legends and Myths

The artwork and imagery of Wychwood beers pays tribute to local legends and myths associated with the ancient forest of Wychwood, and old traditional folklore of England. Here are just a few examples of some of the more interesting insights from folklore we have come across. . .

Hobgoblins

Folklore Festivals & Celebrations

Local Landmarks and their stories

Hobgoblins

Hobgoblins in legends are known to be large version of their cousins the goblins. Versions of the legend can be found in Britain, Spain and in France.

By tradition, the best times for seeing Hobgoblins and other fairy creatures and forest dwellers are twilight and midnight when the moon is full, and some of the best days are Halloween (October 31st), May Day (March 1st), Midsummer Day (June 24th), Lady Day (March 25th) and Christmas Day (December 25th).

Guardian "fairies" or Hobgoblins

Brownies and other Hobgoblins are sometimes known as "guardian" fairies. They are usually depicted in legend and folklore along the lines of a small, solitary, shaggy-haired domestic spirits. They are said to do housework and odd jobs about the home. They will become attached to particular families or places. Though naturally helpful, these Hobgoblins are thought to become malicious if they are offended.

In Folklore there are also references to Hogboons, a guardian spirit of the farms. Shadowy figures who lived in nearly every big mound and protected domestic animals from the Trows (a sort of troll/bogeyman type figure), and would also mend household articles left out for repair. As a reward people would pour ale and milk on mounds where he lived.

Hobgoblins and Brownies were also guardians of breweries, who in days gone by would offer them copious amounts of beer before starting to brew. In exchange the Hobgoblin would ensure that the ale produced had a bouquet and bitterness second to none.

Jack O'Lantern

There is a widespread belief in England in a highly dangerous fairy or Hobgoblin known by many names including Jack O'Lantern, Will O' The Wisp, Joan O' The Wild and Ignis Fatuus, meaning foolish folklore. This legend is said to come from the sight of small flames flickering over marshy ground, caused by self-igniting gases from decaying plants. In legend, Jack O'Lantern took great delight in making travellers lose their way, often at night. The Hobgoblin would take on the disguise of a beautiful young girl or a crock of gold, and lead the traveller floundering into a bog or ditch.

Continuing the Folklore Tradition

The Hobgoblin has became a much-beloved figure in literature thanks to Rudyard Kipling's Puck, who was depicted as immune to many of the traditional fairy weaknesses. More recently Dobby the House-Elf from J.K. Rowling's Harry Potter novels takes his name from the hobgoblin-related legends and certainly has some of the features of legendary hobs and hobgoblins. J.R.R. Tolkien's most famous creations, The Hobbits, are also distant cousins of the Hobgoblin.

Folklore Festivals and Celebrations

All Hallow's Eve - October 31st

The original celebration from which Halloween sprang was Samhain (sow-en), the Celtic New Year. When the Romans invaded Britain they brought with them their own customs and festivals.

One festival known as Pomona day was celebrated at the same time as the Celtic New Year. Pomona was the Roman goddess of fruits and gardens and was therefore a potent symbol of fertility. This is where the tradition of Apple Bobbing derives from.

Young unmarried people would try to bite into an apple floating in water or hanging from a string. The first person to bite into the apple would be the next one to marry.

In recent times many members of the church have been critical of people celebrating Halloween, believing the holiday to be evil. It is strange then to think that the church created the Halloween we know today.

When the first Christian missionaries travelled across pagan Europe and Britain they did not attempt to change the ancient ways, but instead incorporated the beliefs into the Christian ideology. In 835 AD the Roman Catholic church made November 1st, the Celtic New Year, a religious holiday in honour of all the Saints. This day was called All Saint's Day, or Hallowmas, or All Hallows. The day after All Saints day the church made All Souls Day to honour the dead. On that day people would light bonfires and parade through the villages dressed as ghosts or skeletons, saints, angels and devils. October the 31st then became known as 'All Hallow Even' which evolved over time to 'All Hallow's Eve, then to Hallowe'en and finally to the name and spelling we use today - Halloween.

For most of us Halloween is a time to dress up, party and have some scary fun, but to some members of society it still holds spiritual significance. The rise of new wave religions, with their tendency to follow the old ways and worship nature and the seasons, has returned Halloween to its original Celtic status.

Feast of Beltaine - 1st day of May

In olden days a grand springtime festival was held to mark the end of the winter or the "dark season". Folklore recommended villagers to leave offerings of fruit and milk in fields and woods, to seek the good graces of the "little people" or forest dwellers. It was believed that in turn, the forest folk would reward such thoughtfulness by providing humans with rich and abundant harvests and delightful gardens fragrant with a wealth of colourful flowers.

Morris Dancers

The Morris Dance is recorded as early as the 15th century and one thought is that it is named after a Spanish dance Morisca, meaning a Moorish play or dance. However, it probably derives from a much older traditional English ceremony, likely reminiscent of the sacrificial spring dances that took place throughout pre-Christian Europe. There are two predominant forms of Morris; Cotswold & North-West. The Cotswold Morris, with handkerchief, stick and hand-clapping movements for six men, and jigs for a single man, or pair, can be seen during many festivals & fairs in many villages around Oxfordshire.

The Bampton Morris Men

The Bampton Morris men, in a tradition dating back 500 years, perform by dancing through the town on Spring Bank Holiday. They are accompanied by The Fiddler, a Fool with the bladder on a Stick, and The Swordbearer. Traditionally, the swordbearer has a large plum cake impaled on his sword, and he distributes pieces for luck.

Local Landmarks of the Wychwood Forest

The Legend of the Rollright Stones

The Rollright stones is an ancient bronze age "Cathedral" on the Oxfordshire/Warwickshire boundary. There are approximately 72 standing stones, although it's said it is impossible to count them and each time you count you will come to a different number.

Legend says that a king and his army were marching up the hill, when the king met a witch, who said:

"Seven long strides thou shalt take
If long Campton thou canst see
King of England thou shalt be."

Knowing that Long Campton was just over the brow of the hill, the king took seven strides forward. Unfortunately, a mound obscured his view and the witch cackled:

"As long Campton though canst see
Thou and thy men hoar stones shalt be."

And so for more than 2,000 years the King and his army have waited for someone with powerful magic to break the spell and set them free.

The stones are said to be a favourite haunt of Oxfordshire spirit folk and fairies, and Warwickshire witches. Sometimes, it is claimed, they come alive at midnight, performing strange dances and even walking down to Little Rollright Spinney for a drink.

The Old Oak - Shipton Under Wychwood

An Old Oak in a field near The Farmer Inn, called Capp's Lodge has the initials H.D and T.D carved into it's bark and the date 1728. This bears witness to the story of The brothers Tom, Harry and Dick Dunsdon, famous 18th century Highwaymen. Dick, the story goes, bled to death when Tom and Harry hacked off one of his arms to free him after his hand had been caught by waiting constables, while he was reaching through a door shutter to slide back the bolt. Tom and Harry were captured in their turn and hanged. Later their bodies were bought back to Shipton and gibbeted to the oak. The tree is said to be stunted due to the gruesome burden it once bore.

The Lady's Well at Wilcote

A traditional ritual, once forbidden by the Church in AD 963, still continues to this day in Finstock, Oxfordshire. Every year on Palm Sunday, local children make a concoction of liquorice and water from The Lady's Well, in the heart of the Wych Wood forest, and drink it, perceiving it a cure for all winter ills.

Trees of Wychwood

Witches in waiting

In Legend, the thorny plum tree, the oak and the elder are said to be not really trees at all but witches in disguise, hence why they bleed when you cut a notch in the bark.

Mistletoe

A sacred pagan plant and traditional Christmas symbol, Mistletoe was once revered by our ancestors. It was so sacred that it had to be cut with a golden sickle.