A farmer, John Morland, set up the brewery in 1711, and the ale and porter was bought by public houses in London . In 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, keeping their names on the labels of their beers.

Morland acquired Field & son Shillingford brewery near Wallingford. Thomas Skurray at the age of 19 came with Field & Son. After 10 years at Abingdon the brewery Thomas Skurray was running everything apart from the offices. He was Chairman of the Board until his death in 1938 and was to build new malthouse and a soft drinks factory. Thomas Skurray had a son Thomas Edward Deane Skurray who was a partner in a company called Theobold & Skurray, a company of Architects,Deane was responsible for the building of many new pubs in the 1930s: The Saxton Arms Abingdon, the Ox Oxford Road Abingdon, the Royal Oak Didcot, the Old White Hart at Hook, the New inn at Longworth and the Bystander at Wootton Abingdon, also looking after over 300 Morland pubs & hotels. Morland bought more breweries:

• The Abbey Brewery.
• Saxby's in Brewery Abingdon.
• Field & sons Shillingford Brewery.
• Ferguson & Sons' Angel Brewery.
• The Wantage Brewery.
• Dymore-Brown & Sons. First owned by Thomas Skurray then Morland & co ltd
• Henry Hewett & Co.
• Justin & Brinns Castle Street Brewey.
• The Tower Steam Brewery. This building was used by the Morlands as a vehicle repair centre until the 1990s, when they sold it to a housing developer. It is now Tower Close Abingdon..

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 warehouse. In 1997 Morland purchased Ruddles Brewers and moved their production from Oakham to Abingdon. In 2000 Morland and Co plc was sold to Greene King brewery. This led to the closure of the Abingdon brewery and the transfer of production to Bury St. Edmunds.

The Morlands sign, showing an artist with his palette, commemorated George Morland who was a noted artist and painter. "Artist's Keg" bitter was also brewed during the 1980's and 1990's.