Shepherd Neame is an English independent brewery which has been based in the market town of Faversham, Kent, for over 300 years.

[3] While 1698 is the brewery's official established date, town records show that commercial brewing has occurred on the site since 1573.

Theo Barker explains in the official account of the brewery that it all began with a Captain Richard Marsh, who in 1678 is recorded in the Faversham Wardmote Books as contributing by far the largest of the 'Brewers Fines' made at that date.

Richard Marsh lived until 1727, when his brewery was bequeathed to his widow and then to his daughter, who sold the property to Samuel Shepherd around 1741.

In 1789, he set about modernising the process of malt grinding and pumping, which had been previously worked with the employment of horses, by introducing what was reputed to be the first steam engine (Boulton and Watt) to be used for this purpose outside London.

Horse-drawn drays were used to carry the brewery's ales throughout Kent, and malts were imported by barge at Faversham Creek at its wharf, which was also used as the means to deliver its product to London until the 1850s when steamboats were beginning to prove more expeditious to the task.

Mares's unexpected death at the age of 45 in 1864 placed Percy Neame, at the age of 28, as the stronger partner with Henry Shepherd, and with the challenge left to him in Mares's successful expansion programme he brought the Faversham Brewery well into the Neame family's dominion.

Shepherd Neame has embraced 21st-century brewing techniques, for instance, using PDX Reactor Technology for the heat treatment of wort, rather than the traditional method, using a calandria.

[6] Its cask, keg, and bottling lines are all equally high tech, utilising robotics and the latest SAP software to minimise the use of natural resources, while maximising beer quality.

[10] As well as beer, it also brews Samuel Adams Boston Lager under licence[11] and collaborates to produce Orchard View Apple Cider.