Morlands Brewery, Abingdon

The period which has particular interest for me is from around 1830 to 1930.

Morlands originally was set up by John Morland, a farmer, in 1711.  Most of the ales and porters that were sold during the early period were sold in London.  The brewery was in West Ilsley and continued there being handed down generation to generation.

Edward Henry Morland seemed to be the most proactive of the family line.  He certainly made some significant changes to make the company really successful.  In 1854 he took over the ownership of the company and started a process of expansion.

During the early 1860's Morlands acquired the Eagle Brewery, Ock Street, Abingdon from a William Belcher who was made bankrupt in 1861.

In 1796, Susannah Morland, daughter of William Morland, married John F Spenlove, owner of the Abbey Brewery, Abingdon.  In 1866 ownership of the Abbey Brewery business transferred through inheritance to Edward Henry Morland.  Although brewing ceased before the end of the nineteenth century at the Abbey Brewery, the premises in the Vineyard were used as a malt extract production plant (Hordeum Products) until 1975.

Morlands was converted to a Limited Company in 1885 Morlands Ltd. and then soon after adopted the 3 barrels trade mark in 1887 and became known as Morland & Co. Limited - United Breweries, being the convergence of the two Abingdon breweries, Abbey Brewery and Eagle Brewery and the Morlands Brewery of West Ilsley.

In the same year, 1887, Morland closed it's West Ilsley concern and all interests were transferred to the Abingdon locations, in particular at Ock Steet the location of the former Eagle Brewery.  It remained there until its closure in 1999.

Since Edward Henry Morland had no son and heir, the business was conveyed at his death in 1888 to his nephew, Edward Morland born in 1841. Edward was the son of George Bowes Morland, a prominent resident of Abingdon and head of a firm of solicitors in the town. In the same year, H. B. Saxby's Brewery in Stert Street was purchased and was closed down shortly afterwards.

As well as the successful brewing process creating organic growth in the company, the company continued to grow by acquisition of other breweries.  In 1889 Morlands acquired Field & Sons (the Shillingford brewery near Wallingford) and similarly brewing at this premise ceased shortly afterwards.

By 1895, All of the Morlands brewing processes were being run by Thomas Skurray.  Thomas was an expert in the brewing process and developed technology years in front of any of Morland's competitors.  This made Morlands very successful and the company continued to grow over the next 50 or so years.

Even in 1920 they were still buying businesses when they purchased the Wantage Brewery.  They continued to acquire more businesses and do the brewing centrally in Abingdon which was a very successful business model.

The success of the company continued well past the date of my interest and was eventually sold in 2000 to Greene King.

The pictures below show the Morland Brewery circa. 1912. and then an aerial photo from 1977.  Pictures 3 and 4 are when the building became derelict upon closure in 1999.  Picture 5 shows 4 of the stone ginger beer bottles from my collection (from left to right circa. 1880, 1885, 1890 and 1900).  The last picture shows a close up of the 3 barrels trade mark of United Breweries.

Click on image to Enlarge:

So I would like to find the stone ginger beer bottles for this period.  I am told there are 5 known ginger beers relating to The Morlands Brewery.  I have 4 of these as per the picture above but the other one is unknown to me and I am unsure what it looks like.

I would like to find the other one though and of course any currently unknown ones which may exist somewhere! - please help me to find them!!!