The first sizeable brewery in Witney was founded by John Williams Clinch, the son of a banking family, who established the brewery, close to the present site of Wychwood Brewery, in 1841. 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, including 14 individual pubs in Witney town itself. The Clinch’s Brewery 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.

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 1990, the Eagle was re-named the Wychwood Brewery after the Ancient medieval Wychwood Forest which borders Witney. Paddy Glenny sold his shareholding in 1990 to Ian Rogers, a Regional Manager of Halls of Oxford, the brewery’s biggest customer. Aged only 27, Ian sold his house to become a partner with Chris and set about creating a chain of 40 real ale pubs intrinsically tied to the newly renamed Wychwood Brewery with all its myths and legends imagery.

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 January 1996 the first Hobgoblin beer in bottles was produced as the first bottled beer in the UK to have a pictorial front label as opposed to just the name in words. The highly distinctive and quirky labels appealed immediately to a new, younger market for traditional English ales. Hobgoblin is now the flagship beer of Wychwood Brewery and the 3rd best selling bottled ale in the UK.

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. Many of the beer labels took their inspiration and artwork from myths and legends associated with the ancient medieval Wych Wood Forest. The brewery gained a growing fan base, as keen on the beers as they were on the artwork and imagery of the brewery labels. The Hobgoblinns pubs were sold off in 2002, although some continue to use the Hobgoblin branding under their new owners.

Following the closure of the Brakspear Brewery in Henley on Thames, in October 2002, Wychwood was committed to bringing the brewing of Brakspear back to Oxfordshire. Following a £1 Million redevelopment of the Wychwod Brewery site, the Brewery now incorporates a separate Brakspear brewhouse and Brakspear fermenting room, using much of the original Brakspear equipment from Henley, including the famous ‘Double Drop fermenting system, used to brew Brakspear beers since 1774.

Now home to both Wychwood & Brakspear beers, the Wychwood brewery is now established as one of the UKs leading producers of traditionally hand crafted ale and also exports to markets all over the world including USA, Canada, Australia, Japan, Sweden, Russia and many more European countries.

An Old Oak in a field near The Farmer Inn, called Capp’s Lodge has the initials H.D and T.D carved into its 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 brought back to Shipton and gibbeted to the oak. The tree is said to be stunted due to the gruesome burden it once bore.

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.

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.