The story
The brewery was sited at the old Eagle Maltings, built in 1841 to malt barley for Clinch's brewery which had an estate of seventy-one pubs in Southern England. In 1961, Courage bought Clinch's for its pub estate and closed down the brewery.
In 1983, part of the original Clinch's Eagle Brewery site was rented by Paddy Glenny, who is the brother of BBC journalist Misha Glenny, after he took out a £18,000 bank loan, but named the brewing company Glenny Brewery working with junior partner Chris Moss. The first beer brewed was Eagle Bitter (changed to Witney Brewery after Charles Wells Brewery threatened legal action) followed by Wychwood Best. The brewery also exported a 7.7% barleywine, Little Gem, to the Italian market.
Paddy decided to sell the brewery in 1990 to Ian Rogers and move to British Columbia, Canada, where he rejuvenated Nelson Brewing Company. Rogers funded the buyout by selling his house and a chapel he owned in Somerset.
Rogers became managing director and retained Moss. In 1990, the Eagle was renamed the Wychwood Brewery by Rogers after the ancient Wychwood Forest which borders Witney, at the same time the brewery moved to the Two Rivers Industrial estate still in Witney.
In 1992, Rogers leased nine sites from Allied and Inntrepreneur located in town centres or university areas, revamping the pubs to feature wood fittings and stone floors with images of goblins and witches. The first Hobgoblin pub opened in Staines, Surrey, and was followed by Bristol, Bath, Brighton and High Wycombe targeting real-ale drinkers and students. During this time Rogers agreed deals with supermarkets, such as Tesco, Safeway and Waitrose, to stock Wychwood Brewery beers with Hobgoblin becoming the fifth best-selling beer in the UK.
In 1993, 3i became a key investor in the business. In 1994 the brewery was moved back to the site taking on more of the old site. Rogers employed former Firkins finance director, Paul Adams, as a finance director and took over a series of pubs naming them Hobgoblin, running a chain of 35 by 1999 using 3i to fund expansion. Rogers employed Jeremy Moss as head brewer (no relation to Chris) and in 1995 production was moved to Marston's Brewery in Burton upon Trent after James Coyle was employed as sales director.
In 1996, 12,000 Wychwood Brewery T-shirts were sold, with adverts displayed in Viz. In 2000, the company made the inaugural Sunday Times Fast Track 100 and Rogers was invited to the house of Sir Richard Branson whose Virgin Group sponsored the league table.
In 2000, a Hobgoblin pub was opened in Akasaka after Ian Rogers met businessman Mark Spencer on an EU trade mission and Rogers sent him a container of Wychwood merchandise. Another Hobgoblin pub opened a couple of years later in Roppongi which is still trading with Hobgoblin beer still being sold in Japan today.
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In 2001, Chris Moss died. 3i put the business up for sale. The brewery was acquired in 2002 by Refresh UK (which was run by Rupert Thompson) and its 29 Hobgoblin pubs were acquired by Balaclava. The Hobgoblin pubs went through difficult times with new owner Balaclava falling into administration in 2003, which was then acquired by Pubs 'N' Bars plc. Pubs 'N' Bars then itself fell into administration in 2009. The pubs were sold off separately, losing their Hobgoblin branding.
In 2008, Marston's bought Refresh UK including Wychwood Brewery. Marston's brewing operations, including Wychwood Brewery, were merged with Carlsberg UK to form Carlsberg Marston’s Brewing Company in 2020. CMBC later became Carlsberg Britvic.
In September 2023 Carlsberg Marston’s Brewing Company announced its proposal to close Wychwood Brewery in November 2023 in order to "consolidate our brewing network" amid an "incredibly competitive" UK ale market and a "turbulent economic outlook". At the time of the announcement the brewery employed six people. In November 2023 the closure went ahead as announced.
From Wikipedia’s article on Wychwood Brewery, shared under CC BY-SA 4.0.4