Our History
Duck’s Folly is one of our most popular beers and its name is strongly linked to the history of Goddards. The brewery was founded just over 30 years ago in 1993 by Anthony Goddard and his wife Alix. But the story starts a couple of years earlier.
Up until 1991, Anthony and Alix lived at Barton Manor in Whippingham, right next door to Osborne House. It is a beautiful manor house and was the base for a very successful vineyard business. However, at this time, Anthony found himself exposed financially to the Lloyds insurance market, which had suffered calamitous losses. It forced the sale of Bartin Manor and a move to a derelict farm on the outskirts of Ryde. With no opportunity to replant a vineyard, but having gained a taste for making alcohol, brewing beer seemed a logical step for the future of Barnsley Farm.
Oh, and if you make an anagram of ‘Ducks Folly’, you will find it makes two words. Lloyds is second…
The Isle of Wight's Oldest Brewery
In 1993 Goddards began with a 15 barrel brew-length plant, installed in a fine old barn at the Farm – the first brew was racked off that Spring, just in time for the tourist season. It wasn’t obvious at the time, but Goddards was also part of a renaissance in traditional british brewing which has gone on from strength to strength across the country. Craft beer is very popular these days, but that’s precisely what Anthony was brewing back in 1993.
For almost 30 years, brewing continued at Barnsley. The brewery had been increased to a 22 barrel brew-length and it now included a bottling plant in an adjacent barn. With the demise of older local businesses, Goddards is now the oldest brewery in operation on the Island and many of its beers have become well-known across the Island and beyond. It also has a terrific record in collecting prestigious awards for its beer at various shows over the years.
Brewing into the future
In the spring of 2023, the entire brewery moved from its long-term home near Ryde to a new £2.8m facility at Hale Common in Arreton. Goddards Brewery is part of the Branstone Farm development, designed to embody the Isle of Wight Biosphere Reserve’s focus on balancing conservation with sustainable use. This includes incorporating green spaces, promoting biodiversity, and fostering a sense of community. The site is large enough to allow the brewing side to develop, as well as providing fantastic new facilities to welcome visitors. Not just to see the brewing process, but to stay and enjoy a pint of Goddards. The brewery is open daily and open to all visitors, including the four-legged variety. We look forward to welcoming you soon!
Although we take what we do seriously, we don’t ever want to take ourselves too seriously – in the words of Goddards’ founder himself
“life is not a rehearsal”
and we want to make sure we have plenty of fun.
The Verbal History of Beer
Ale Wives
A turn of phrase first coined in England in the late 1300’s. Ale Wives, Brewess’s or Brewsters were the masters of ale brewing from their homes in Medieval Britain. The role provided an income and likely grew out of the traditional household chores. Batches of ale were brewed in large pots (cauldrons) over stoves in the home and when the ale was ready a broom was placed over the threshold of the door as a symbol to notify the rest of the family and also neighbours. All the extra grain around the house led to more mice and rats, so women kept cats to handle the rodent population.
Any extra/excess ale was sold at the local market. To be seen in the busy market crowds Ale Wives would don large black, conical style hats (do you see where this story is going). Men would then flock there and buy and consume large amounts of ale. As you can imagine they got drunk fairly quickly after drinking these home brewed ‘potions’.
Women made a decent profit from ale sales and the richer men of the time did not like this. The ale brewing industry dominated by home-brewing women transformed to a professional and commercial business which was male-governed for mainstream trade.
Society changed with this and many Ale Wives were ridiculed and became scapegoats for the brewing community and to blame for all the ‘indecencies’ that the Medieval world feared that came with the production and consumption of alcohol. Poems, paintings and even Church murals began depicting that these women belonged in ‘hell’.
Ale Conner
The history of Ale Conners stretches back to Medieval Britain, an officer appointed to regularly check and ensure the quality of ale and beer as well as overseeing and setting standardised measurements and prices. Beer was taxed on the amount of sugar it had in it, so the more sugar the higher the tax. An Ale Connor would visit various pubs/ ale houses and would wear a pair of leather trousers and would sit in puddles of beer, if the leather trousers stuck to the bench or became sticky the beer would have a higher tax. When hops were introduced this increased the longevity of beer so that meant more breweries to visit in a small space of time.
Ale Conners is still a role, but they leave the leather trousers at home now. In London there are four ale conners who examine the measures used by beer and spirit sellers.
In 2007, Dr Christine Rigden, a previous Sheriff of London, became one of the four Ale Conners, and the very first woman appointed to the position in the role’s 700-years history.