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 Sheep (anarcho-folk band) sleevenotes of the albums illustrated Black Sheep’s increasingly collective approach – Fiegel also served as one of the group’s photographers, while the musically absent Hebbs had contributed a painting. Other contributors to Black Sheep have included Cope’s wife Dorian Cope, performing under the pseudonym of "Mother of the Revolution" (Dorian Cope's radical blog "On This Deity" is also a Black Sheep project). The collective approach has also allowed for an increasing number of releases foregrounding individual group members and associates. Christophe F. stepped to the fore on 2009’s "Heathen Frontiers in Sound" which he predominantly wrote while backed by the