Theakston Brewery

T&R Theakston is an English brewery located in the market town of Masham, North Yorkshire. The company is the sixteenth largest brewer in the UK by market share, and the second largest brewer under family ownership after Shepherd Neame.

T&R Theakston Ltd. was founded in 1827 by Robert Theakston and John Wood at The Black Bull pub and brewhouse in Masham. By 1832 Theakston had sole ownership of the brewery and in 1875 he passed control over to his son Thomas who expanded the range of buildings by building the new brewery on the Paradise Fields.

In 1919 the company acquired and closed down the Lightfoot Brewery, also in Masham.

Theakston's expanded into Cumbria in 1974 buying the Carlisle State Management Brewery. The brewery had been owned and operated by the government since 1916. However the site was a financial drain on Theakston's and led to the company being taken over in 1984 by Blackburn based brewer, Matthew Brown plc. Matthew Brown was itself taken over by Scottish & Newcastle in 1987.

Paul Theakston (Managing Director since 1968) left Theakston's in 1988, and in 1992 established the Black Sheep Brewery in the old Lightfoot Brewery premises - located adjacent to the White Bear Hotel, one of Theakston's pubs.

The Carlisle brewery was closed in 1987, and brewing of some Theakston beers was transferred to Scottish & Newcastle's Tyne Brewery.

In 2004 the business returned to family ownership after being purchased back from Scottish & Newcastle by four Theakston brothers. Major development works at the Masham Brewery enabled the company to announce that brewing of Theakston Bitter would return to Masham in 2009.

The company produces cask ale and pasteurised bottled ales. Theakston cask ales are widely available in pubs in the north of England, though are less common in other parts of the country. The bottled beers are also widely distributed to British supermarkets and exported to Germany and the United States.

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