{"id":35427,"date":"2026-05-20T17:52:10","date_gmt":"2026-05-20T16:52:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/abingdonblog.co.uk\/?p=35427"},"modified":"2026-05-20T17:52:10","modified_gmt":"2026-05-20T16:52:10","slug":"old-speckled-hen-moves-further-from-its-roots","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.abingdonblog.co.uk\/?p=35427","title":{"rendered":"Old Speckled Hen to become a Damm Beer"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/abingdonblog.co.uk\/imag26\/2026052001.jpg\" \/><br \/>\nGreene King has sold the Old Speckled Hen brand to Damm UK, the British arm of Spanish brewer Estrella Damm. Brewing is expected to eventually move from Bury St Edmunds to Bedford as a result. It will also mean a change to the Greene King distribution centre in Abingdon where the lorries currently wear the Old Speckled Hen livery.<\/p>\n<p>For the national press, this is a business story. For Abingdon, it is part of the afterlife of two of the town\u2019s best-known names: Morland and MG.<br \/>\n<img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/abingdonblog.co.uk\/imag26\/2026052002.jpg\" \/><br \/>\nOld Speckled Hen was first brewed in Abingdon in 1979 by Morland Brewery to celebrate 50 years of the MG factory being based in the town. The original logo had a chain connecting MG with the town crest. The Old Speckled Hen was not a bird but an \u201cMG Featherlight Saloon&#8221; with cellulosed fabric stretched over a wooden frame, which became an MG factory runaround. Identified by its mottled appearance, it was pointed out in the Abingdon accent by the phrase, \u201cThere gus the owd speckl\u2019d un\u201d.<\/p>\n<p>The beer created to commemorate MG\u2019s presence in Abingdon became a multi-national success after the factory closed.<\/p>\n<p>This timeline tells the story:<\/p>\n<p>1979 \u2014 Old Speckled Hen first brewed in Abingdon by Morland<br \/>\n1980 \u2014 MG factory closes<br \/>\n1999\/2000 \u2014 Greene King acquires Morland (their interest in Morland was driven in part by the success of Old Speckled Hen beer). Brewing leaves Abingdon for Bury St Edmunds<br \/>\n2026 \u2014 Greene King sells the brand to Damm, with brewing expected to move to Bedford<br \/>\n<img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/abingdonblog.co.uk\/imag26\/2026052005.jpg\" \/><br \/>\nGreene King kept the MG octagon and Morland name on the beer.\u00a0 Damm appears keen to market Old Speckled Hen as an \u201ciconic British ale brand with a rich heritage\u201d. The acquisition appears to cover the Old Speckled Hen family of beers and not the Morland brand, so I don&#8217;t know whether the Morland branding will continue on the beer.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Greene King has sold the Old Speckled Hen brand to Damm UK, the British arm of Spanish brewer Estrella Damm. Brewing is expected to eventually move from Bury St Edmunds to Bedford as a result. It will also mean a change to the Greene King distribution centre in Abingdon where the lorries currently wear the [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[83],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-35427","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-heritage"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.abingdonblog.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/35427","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.abingdonblog.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.abingdonblog.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.abingdonblog.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.abingdonblog.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=35427"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.abingdonblog.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/35427\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.abingdonblog.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=35427"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.abingdonblog.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=35427"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.abingdonblog.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=35427"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}