The Most Famous MG?
A question: what’s the most famous MG? Old Number One? One of the record breaking cars, EX135 or EX179? The last MGB off the production line in 1980, and thereby the last Abingdon-built MG? There’s a case for arguing that today it’s none of these.
The most famous MG by name is very probably a little experimental, one off, 1920s saloon that only ever stood out because of its unconventional paint finish, and that was used for some years by the MG factory as a hack for employees needing transport locally when on company business. Who could have envisaged, back then, that the little car referred to locally as the ‘Old Speckled Hen’ as it nipped busily around the streets of Abingdon would eventually give its name to a beer known and enjoyed around the world? Back in 1927, Morris Garages had built a ’14/40 Featherweight Saloon’, a sports version of the Morris 14/28 saloon and one of the cars built around the time of the launch of the MG name and badge. Along with the MG mechanical upgrades, the car featured a lightweight body constructed in fabric over a wooden frame. Uniquely, the body was finished
How The Hen Got Its Speckles
There is a popular alternative story of how the speckled paint finish came about, namely that its usual parking place inside the MG works was rather too close to the paint shop and as a result it collected spatters of paint over it. If you think about it for a while this version of events raises one or two tricky questions (like ‘How come the car was always spattered with the same colours?’ and ‘Why was paint flying around outside the paint shop?’) so it seems rather more folklore than fact… unless anyone has proof otherwise, of course.
Retained as a demonstrator for the MG company, the Featherweight Saloon was still around when MG made the move from Oxford to new, larger premises in Abingdon in 1929. When its days as a demonstrator were over, the little car was demoted to the role of works runabout, frequently to be seen running errands around the town of Abingdon. Again, folklore comes in to play, but a little more credibly this time, in that workers and townsfolk alike referred to the car as ‘The Old Speckled ‘Un’ – and it doesn’t take much to see that being quickly corrupted into ‘The Old Speckled Hen’. The car survived a serious wartime fire at the MG factory to slip into private ownership and relative obscurity for many years after the Second World War. In the 1990s an enthusiast of 1920s MGs came across it in South Wales and, having recognised the car’s significance, began the process of it being expertly and painstakingly restored back to its former glory. Following sale by auction in 2020, the Old Speckled Hen now resides in South Staffordshire, making occasional guest appearances at classic car events in the selective and elegant manner of the grand old lady she now is.
The Limited Edition 50th Anniversary Beer…
Meanwhile… back in 1979, MG was about to celebrate the 50th anniversary of the opening of their factory in Abingdon. The company approached the large and well known brewery in the town, Morland, to ask about the possibility of a limited production beer to assist the factory and townsfolk alike along with their celebration of the anniversary. Morland responded with a special pale ale, featuring a specific gravity deliberately set at the anniversary-matching figure of 1050. The name chosen for the celebratory brew was the one seen to be most historically appropriate for the links between Abingdon and MG, ‘Old Speckled Hen’
Employees of MG entered a competition to design a label for the Old Speckled Hen beer pump handles and beer bottles, the winning design featuring the MG octagon logo, linked by a chain to the Abingdon coat of arms, with the MG aspects of the label in MG’s traditional brown and cream and the Abingdon and Morland aspects in the green of the town’s coat of arms.
The new beer proved so popular in the lead up to the anniversary weekend that a second batch had to be quickly produced to ensure the local shops and Morland’s pubs had sufficient for the weekend itself. Events over the weekend were a great success, ranging from a sports car gymkhana to a round-the-town pram race. Unfortunately, revellry was to prove short lived. In a cruelly brutal and insensitive move, on the Monday following the anniversary weekend, the board of British Leyland, the owners of MG, announced that the MG factory would close the following year.
Turns Out Not To Be A Limited Edition At All
Despite the closure of the MG factory, bottled Old Speckled Hen beer continued to be sold through the 1980s, remaining popular in the Abingdon area but taking a bit of a back seat in Morland’s strategic plans. Better was to come. With a return to popularity of draught beers at the end of the decade, Morland decided to relaunch Old Speckled Hen in draught, bottled and canned form.
The relaunch included a new label, featuring the now so familiar red octagon borrowed from the MG logo with Old Speckled Hen script within. Aside from the reference to MG by the use of the octagon, an explanation of the tie between MG, Morland and Abingdon and the car from which the beer got its name was also included on the back of the packaging, for the sake of MG enthusiasts, lovers of very English tales and others of curious mind.
The relaunch worked, and how. In a short time sales grew to the extent that Morland discontinued lager production (lager having been Morland’s mainstay during the 1980s) to dedicate the brewery space thus freed up to increased production of Old Speckled Hen. Even that wasn’t enough. By the mid 1990s a new brew house extension was required for further expansion. At this time, Old Speckled Hen had broken out of the network of Morland’s pubs in Berkshire and Oxfordshire and was available in hostelries across the country.
Old Speckled Hen Leaves Abingdon, But Takes On The World
Through an agreement between Whitbread, who for many years had been minority shareholders in Morland, and East Anglian brewer Greene King, the latter were able to take over Morland in 1999. The Morland brewery was soon shut down and production of Old Speckled Hen transferred to Greene King’s premises in Suffolk. Twenty years after MG left Abingdon, Morland and their increasingly successful Old Speckled Hen did the same.
Today, still under ownership of Greene King, Morland Old Speckled Hen’s popularity and sales have gone global. It’s now sold in over 40 countries, is the third best selling imported English ale in the United States and is the number one selling premium beer in the United Kingdom. It’s spawned an Old Speckled Hen family of beers, including the ‘super premium’ Old Crafty Hen (in case Old Speckled Hen wasn’t premium enough), Old Golden Hen and Old Hoppy Hen, along with variants thereof, catering for most beer lovers. Not bad for a brew that started life as a limited edition for a golden anniversary weekend.
And so, in over 40 countries across the world, you can buy a bottle of Old Speckled Hen, and on the label on the back you can read the story about the tie between MG, Abingdon, and Morland – and the little car with the unique colour scheme that everyone called The Old Speckled Hen, probably the most famous MG in the world.
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