“From Morris Garages?” you incredulously ask. You’d be right, actually.


You see, in 1929 the famed Morris Garages (better known as MG) opened a factory in Abington, Oxfordshire. For years, the factory used an ancient model, probably a 14/18 (a rebodied Morris Oxford) with “featherweight fabric” bodywork, as a runabout. They parked her outside the paint shop, earning the car a thick splattering of paint and a new name – “Owld Speckl’d Un’.” (An alternate story is that the paint shop gave it a special black-with-gold-specks paint job, earning the same name.)
In 1979, in celebration of 50 years of MG’s vibrant existence in Abington, Morland Brewery (originally established in 1711!) brewed a special beer they anglicized (in a fashion) into Old Speckled Hen. The beer took off, and Morland was soon absorbed into Greene King brewery in 2000, about the same time BMW unloaded the MG brand which was eventually sold to Nanjing and later SAIC, both Chinese companies. Now OSH is a global brand with growing sales, and MG lives a zombie afterlife as Rowe in China. Somehow, I doubt that Tsingtao is going to release “Old Speckled Rowe.”
Wikipedia, Old Speckled Hen (age protected, so Javelin girl might need to tweak her birthdate)