Theakston Brewery 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
Black Welsh Mountain sheep legs; the males are horned, but females are normally polled.These sheep are known for lambing easily, as well as good milk and very high fertility. A small number of wild Mouflon sheep were introduced from Sardinia in 1906 and from Corsica in 1908 to Lambay Island (off the coast of Dublin) where they produced offspring. These were crossed with Welsh Black Mountain sheep and the inheritance of their wool-colour studied (Fraser Roberts, A. J. 1931 Colour inheritance in sheep; vi The genetic constitution of the Wild Mouflon, J. Genetics XXV (1)). The band State Radio released the song "Black Welsh