AN ESTABLISHED brewery from the district is settling into a new home.

Goose Eye Brewery is now at Castlefields Industrial Estate in Crossflatts, Bingley, after moving from its old base at Ingrow Bridge, Keighley, earlier this summer. The family-run business had been in Ingrow for 26 years.

Business owner David Atkinson, who lives in Steeton, said the move had been a culmination of a 10-year hunt for suitable premises.

Explaining why the company had moved, he said: “There were a few reasons. We’d outgrown our old building, which was also a bit tired, and we were running at full capacity in there.

“The equipment we were brewing with was old and needed replacing.

“We could have replaced it on the same scale at Ingrow, but as we’re expanding we needed a bigger place in order to scale up our operations.

“Also, if you want to break into supplying the big chains and supermarkets you need to have the right accreditations, so we wanted to fulfil those requirements by having a nice, newer building.

“So really we had no choice other than to move, because otherwise we wouldn’t have been able to expand further.

“We explored as many avenues as we could but it took a long time to find somewhere because there weren’t many suitable premises coming up for sale in Keighley.

“We kept on looking and in the end, quite by chance we found a couple of units in Castlefields. We are now in Unit S.”

Goose Eye Brewery was originally founded in its namesake village by Brian Eastell in the 1970s but then closed down.

It was re-started in Ingrow by Mr Eastell and David Atkinson’s father, Jack, with Mr Atkinson senior continuing to run it after Mr Eastell left and David Atkinson joining the firm himself in 1996.

Mr Atkinson’s mother Linda has also been involved with the business. Working alongside him at the brewery today are his sons Jack and Joe, alongside Jamie Rowell. Mr Atkinson said even though the brewery is now in Crossflatts, it still regards itself as very much a Keighley firm.

“Over the years the support we’ve had from businesses in the Keighley area has been really good,” he said.