Toasting Old Speckled Hens

In his series on birds that breed true, Grant Brereton takes a look at the distinctive ‘paint-splattered’, tricoloured plumage varieties that also boast a royal connection

- Grant Brereton

Many people will have seen — and I’m sure tasted — an ale called Old Speckled Hen, available in pubs around the country. However, how the name was arrived at is perhaps not as one would expect. It had nothing to do with chickens and everything to do with motor cars.

In 1979, the MG car company, celebrating 50 years of its move to Abingdon from Oxford, asked Morland & Co to brew some special commemorative beer for the occasion, for which they chose the name Old Speckled Hen. This was a mutation of an affectionate reference to a paint-spattered old MG Featherlight Saloon, which was the factory runaround. For several years, it was parked under the paint shop where it was splattered with flecks of paint — in a time when cars were sprayed by human hand. And so, with its mottled appearance, it was nicknamed ‘Owld Speckl’d Un’. But for obvious reasons, the name was modified to fit the bill.

SPECKLED SUSSEX

Being the poultry nut that I am, at every opportunity in the local pub (on the occasions I was bought a drink), my non-poultry friends would ask, “what are you having — Old Speckled Hen”? Then the old chestnut of whether speckled hens existed would always come up in conversation, and “what breeds would they be”? My answer was always “Speckled Sussex”. It is the oldest Sussex colour, and was originally shown by John Cole in the any-other variety classes at the 1890 Lewes Show. The Sussex Club was formed 13 years later in 1903 at the Elephant and Castle Hotel in Lewes.