Hobsons Brewery hosts knees-up on Severn Valley Railway

To mark its 25-year journey in style, Hobsons Brewery invited 400 publicans and other associates to join a specially chartered train on the Severn Valley Railway.

The day-long celebrations began at Kidderminster where guests were greeted with bottles to enjoy on board. It was soon time to get steaming - the train that is - and head up to Bridgnorth, where more passengers joined the celebrations before lunch at the Highley station.

Hobsons, based in Cleobury Mortimer, has been associated with the railway from its early years, brewing a special bottled beer named Steam No 9 in 1996, later badged Manor Ale. Since 2013 Hobsons has also been a silver member of the Severn Valley Railway Charitable Trust, set up to preserve the heritage of the railway for future generations.

"We wanted to have a big celebration of our journey with all of those who have worked with us over the years," said marketing manager Kate Pearce, shouting over the rumble of the engine as it prepared to roll out of Bridgnorth.

"We have had a relationship with the Severn Valley Railway since the start so we are pleased to be able to do this with them, and we have had such a good response from everyone we invited."

Founded by the Davis family in 1993, the brewery started out in a converted saw mill with a small 10 barrel operation. Today it has a 45-barrel brewery producing over 50,000 pints in a typical week.

Singing and laughter filled the carriages as the Hobsons train pulled out of the Bridgnorth station - leaving behind commercial director Reuban Crouch to pack up the beer and race it to the next stop.

He said: "It is fantastic, a really nice opportunity for all of us at Hobsons to give something back to all the wonderful people we have been involved with over the last 25 years. We are a business that believes in giving back to our customers, and it is great to have them all here."