Old Speckled Hen a 6.5% abv ale, Old Golden Hen, a golden coloured 4.1% beer, and Old Hoppy Hen, a 4.2% abv pale ale. Old Speckled Hen took its name from an MG car which was used as a runaround for workers in the MG factory. Over years of service, the car became covered in flecks of paint, gaining it acclaim in the town and earned it the nickname "Owld Speckled 'Un", translated by Ian Williams the personnel officer at the Abingdon factory into Old Speckled Hen for the brown ale first brewed by Morland in 1979 when the brewery was asked by
Ale conner in the community. Ale-conners sometimes had to be impressed into service, and the post was often rotated amongst a number of individuals. The tradition is still maintained in the City of London. The 1911 "Encyclopædia Britannica" reports: The officers are chosen by the liverymen of London to inspect the measures used in the public houses. The title is a sinecure. It is sometimes said that: The Ale Conner was a type of early tax-man whose job it was to test the quality and strength of beer, not by quaffing, but by sitting in a puddle of it! They travelled from