Morland of Oxfordshire

Old Brewhouse now converted to apartments

A recent trip away from the South West gave me an opportunity to call into Abingdon and visit the site of the old Morland Brewery, once the second oldest brewer in the UK, dating back to 1711. Morland are dear to my heart and as much as I love working for St Austell in Cornwall, it was in Oxfordshire that my love of cask beer and pubs began.

Morland of course are more famous now for being the birth place of Old Speckled Hen, but that particular beer was a fairly recent arrival in Morland's history. Formed from a combination of small breweries including the Reading and Wantage breweries, at its height Morland operated well over 400 pubs spread largely across the south of England and primarily in the Thames Valley area.


The beers were wonderful but like a lot of regional beers it really helped if you  grew up with them and were accustomed to the taste. Morland Original was, when brewed by Morland a proper beer drinkers bitter. It was a well extenuated beer which often led to it being described as thin, but it was a true bitter beer and there were no citrus hops present as is the current fashion in brews. I loved it, a real savoury beer but not to everyone's palate.

Morland Best Bitter became Old Masters and this was a blend between Morland Original and Old Speckled Hen - blended beers are more common than you think and it makes them no less a beer. Old Masters was a lovely beer but again failed to attract the publics eye.

The real winner was Old Speckled Hen and I am so proud to have been part of that story. I remember it going on trial on draught and we knew we had a winner when one of the trial pubs had to sell the drip tray contents off to a customer it was so good! Old Speckled Hen has gone on to achieve fame and fortune and to be fair to Greene King who now own the brand, they have done an excellent job in growing it further and establishing Hen as the number one take home beer.

The old Maltings, my office mid centre front

Morland as a brewery was bigger than you think. The brewery was a traditional gravity brewery, the malt went in at the top and six days later out at the bottom came cask beer. I recall the Fermentation room where all the vessels were open fermenters, we used to show people around there on brewery tours and I'm sure you would not be allowed to do that now. The buildings were also stunning, examples of early 20th century buildings in many cases but they looked wonderful. Malting also used to take place on the site and some of the building designs reflect this. I recall the attic to our office contained the malting tiles which had small holes in them to allow the heat through.

Many of Morland's pubs contain a unique marker of their former ownership, a distinctive brewery plaque in the wall featuring the brewery artist logo. Morland was named after the celebrated artist of the 18th century, John Morland so all things artist/painting became linked to the brewery. Some of these pubs have now become houses and the only reminder they were once pubs being the artist plaque set in the wall.

All told I've a lot to be grateful to for Morland, a firm grounding in the brewing business, the chance to be part of the famous success story of Old Speckled Hen and also the enjoyment of working with some lovely people. It's a great shame that events led to its closure, but things move on and today, the housing development containing what must be a hundred dwellings or so reflects the brewing heritage and is full of character that befits a once thriving beer business.