Black Sheep Brewery Theakston left in 1988, and after a hiatus of more than a year purchased the North Yorkshire Malt Roasting Company, originally part of the former Lightfoot's brewery site, from an animal feed company, in order to start a new brewery in Masham. Theakston wanted to use the Lightfoot name to bring back an old brewing tradition, but Scottish and Newcastle had already trademarked the name. The association of Masham with sheep led Theakston to come up with the name "Sheep Brewery" which rapidly became "Black Sheep" at his wife's suggestion. The first and original Black Sheep Best Bitter was sold
Black Sheep Brewery many real ale enthusiasts, steadily rising dividends. However its has since been forced to retrench, and has paid no dividend for several years. It is one of the largest shareholdings of the CAMRA Members' Investment Club. The brewery re-launched their "Emmerdale Ale" as a lower-alcohol beer (formerly 5%) on 27 January 2006 at The Crown in Manfield for the Campaign for Real Ale (CAMRA). The launch party saw Chris Chittell (Eric Pollard from the "Emmerdale" TV series) pull the first pint of the new brew. Emmerdale Ale is no longer brewed. The night also marked the rebranding of Black Sheep's