Morland Brewery

Location	Westgate Street Bury St. Edmunds Suffolk United Kingdom
Opened	1711
Owner(s)	Greene King (2000)

Morland is a famous old British brewer that in 2000 was bought by Greene King breweries. Greene King kept for sale Morland’s brands: Hen’s Tooth, Old Speckled Hen, Tanner’s Jack and Moreland’s Original. Greene King was founded in England in 1799, 88 years after English farmer John Morland founded Morland Brewing in 1711. In the 1860s, Morland bought Abbey Brewery and Eagle Brewery. Morland changed its name to United Breweries in 1885. The company bought several more breweries and around 1944 changed its name back to Morland. In 1979 Morland created Old Speckled Hen. This was one of their most popular beers.^[1]

History

A farmer, John Morland, set up a brewery in 1711, and the ale and porter was bought by public houses in London . During the 1860s, Morland acquired Abbey Brewery and then Eagle Brewery. In the 1880s Morland moved its operation from West Ilsley to Abingdon.

In 1885 Morland became a limited company and changed its name to United Breweries and its trademark to a pyramid of three beer barrels, with the initials of the three breweries on the ends of them. In 1889, the company took over two brewers, H. B. Saxby and Field & Sons, and kept their names on the labels of their beers.

In 1890 the Morland's hired Thomas Skurray to run brewing department of United-Breweries. He got a large raise and later became Chairman of the Board until his death in 1938. During this time, he organized and invested in other businesses as well. For example, he helped start an accounting firm, a malt works, a soft drink factory, a bakery, and he bought and fixed up several hotels. His son, Thomas,^[2] was on the Board and also had investments in other companies. For example, his architecture firm did design work for the Morland's pubs. The Morland's bought more breweries:

• The Abbey Brewery.
• H.B Saxby's in Brewery Abingdon.
• T.H.Field & sons Shillingford Brewery.
• W.H Ferguson & Sons' Angel Brewery.
• The Wantage Brewery.
• The Rockwell Brewery.
• JAS Dymore-Brown & Sons.
• Henry Hewett & Co.
• Justin & Brinns Castle Street Brewey.
• The Tower Steam Brewery. This building was used by the Morlands as a and vehicle repair centre until the 1990s, when they sold it to a housing developer.

In 1944 United-Breweries became a public limited company called Morland and Co plc, and all the acquired brewery names were dropped except Ferguson's Ltd, which was retained for the wine and spirits business, and Bass-Charrington Brewery which was kept separate because of its expensive new distribution wearhouse. Then, in 2000 Morland and Co plc was sold to Greene King brewery.

Morland buildings

Public houses and restaurants

In 1991, Morland and Co plc purchased 101 pubs from Courage Ltd and a further 100 were added two years later from Whitbread. More purchases were made in the mid 1990s, and also a number of restaurants nationwide. Morland opened their own restaurants called Artist Fayer.

Brewery buildings

The Brewers House the Morland's once lived in was demolished when the company built a large air-conditioned draught beer warehouse. A lot of the brewery buildings are still standing. The big Malthouse became Morland's offices and stores. Old malthouse cottages are a cabinet maker's shop and a paint store and a slot macine company. In the middle of them is an old stable where pub signs used to be painted.

Beer

Bottle of Old Speckled Hen (MG Anniversary Brew)

Tanner's Jack ale, named after the leather tankards popular in the 18th century

Old Speckled Hen

Old Speckled Hen beer was first brewed by Morland in 1979.

Other Morland beers

Morland Original, Hen's Tooth and Tanner's Jack are also still brewed under Greene King of Bury St Edmunds by Morland's Brewing.

References

External links

• Greene King website
• Old Speckled Hen website