Masham south-east, lies St. Mary's Church with its large yard. Although Masham is a relatively small town it has two working breweries, Black Sheep Brewery and Theakstons, situated only a few hundred yards from one another. The Black Sheep Brewery sponsors annual folk festivals. Previous performers have included Hugh Cornwell of The Stranglers. The town was also for a long time home to Lightfoot Brewery. this was bought by the Theakston family and closed in the 1920s. The Lightfoot brewery buildings are now used by Black Sheep. The Masham Steam Engine & Fair Organ Rally is held annually, organised by the
Black Sheep (Hill novel) reveals the book was inspired by "a black and white photograph of a 19th-century engraving she found online". The village was, she says, "exactly as I describe. It was essentially an amphitheatre with all the mine workings in the bottom with the great gantry thing, and terraces of houses going up, and a little path with a gate through which people went down to work, and you could just see at the top where the houses petered out, farmland, country. You couldn't think of a more closed community than this bowl." Black Sheep (Hill novel) Black Sheep, is a novella