 Boddingtons of Manchester acquired Higsons in 1985 but decided to abandon brewing in 1989 to focus on its pubs.Boddingtons' brewing arm was sold to Whitbread in 1990 which then subsequently closed the Higsons Stanhope brewery.In 2005, the former Mayflower Brewery in Wigan, originally run by a former Higsons brewing chemist, was commissioned to recreate the original Higsons Bitter in a series of test brews.