On a gorgeous summer’s day in the heart of England, I veer the car off the arrow-like road the Romans used to call Watling Street – now more prosaically known as the A5 – and meander down a country lane towards the pretty village of Litchborough.

For a small settlement in the middle of nowhere, the place has a surprising brewing heritage.

It was here, in 1974, that former Watney’s brewer Bill Urquhart established one of the first microbreweries of the modern age.

Litchborough’s main beer was called Northamptonshire Bitter and was described by the Good Beer Guide as ‘an imitation of the old Northampton bitter produced by Phipps’, referencing a brewery in the nearby county town that was taken over by Watney’s.

At its height, Litchborough’s beer was served in about 40 pubs here and hereabouts. Bill then sold the business in 1980 and the company soldiered on until 1984, latterly upping sticks and moving up the A5 to Daventry.

Brewing returned to the village in 2006, when Hoggleys, founded in Northampton as a part-time business by former youth worker Roy Crutchley (pictured above), switched location.

Roy’s introduction to professional brewing was tentative. Years of home brewing had convinced him that he could make a living out of making beer but still he branched out only slowly, in 2003 converting a tiny shed in the garden of his home into what was once widely reported as Britain’s smallest brewery.

Taking the Plunge

It was at this point that I met Roy for the first time. He came knocking on my front door to deliver samples of his ales for consideration for the Good Bottled Beer Guide. I tried the beers and was instantly impressed.

Consequently, I was not surprised to learn later that Roy had accepted redundancy from his job at Northamptonshire County Council, taken the plunge and made brewing his full-time profession.

The move to Litchborough enabled Roy to build up from a one-and-a-half-barrel kit to an eight-barrel system. It also meant that Roy’s other half, Julie Hogg (the brewery name is an amalgam of their surnames), could join him in the business.

The sun is shining, the sky is cloudless and a subtle breeze ripples the corn in the surrounding fields as I chat to Roy and Julie in their country brewhouse. This is brewing at its most homely and essential, and they seem delighted to be hands-on controllers of their own destiny, having worked for bigger concerns all their lives.

Their offering extends to eight different cask beers, plus a couple of seasonals, with most of the beers also bottle conditioned. Northamptonshire Bitter, Kislingbury Bitter, Mill Lane Mild and Solstice Stout are the most popular, and there are also two beers that pay humorous homage to Quentin Tarantino movies.

Originally developed for a beer wholesaler, Reservoir Hogs and Pump Fiction are now part of the permanent selection.

I particularly like the mild. At 4%, it’s a touch stronger than most and as a result has more body to support the smoky roasted malt flavours. The stout is also a belter, similar in some respects to the mild, but carrying more clout at 5%.

But Roy is a versatile brewer. Northamptonshire Bitter is a modern, golden ale with a honeyed softness and delicate floral and citrus notes from the mix of First Gold, Challenger and Golding hops.

Yuletide Ale, meanwhile, involves such a clever and subtle mix of seasonal spices that it’s not out of place to drink it at other times of the year.

Selecting a few examples is perhaps a bit misleading, however, as there’s not a bad beer in the bunch and I’m delighted to be handed more bottles as I head back to my car.

‘Northamptonshire’s best-kept secret’ is the tagline used on the Hoggleys website. I’ve been trying to change all that since I first tasted the beers and, as the number of outlets for both bottle and cask beer keep increasing, at last it seems people are listening.