Andover, Hampshire
Andover is a town in Hampshire, England, west of Basingstoke. It has a population of about 40,000 people. It is part of Test Valley administrative district.
History
Andover UK’s first mention in history is in 950 when King Edred is recording as having built a royal hunting lodge there. In 962 King Edgar called a meeting of the Saxon 'parliament' his hunting lodge near Andover.
Of more importance was the baptism, in 994 of the Viking leader Olaf Trygvason. This was part of a deal with King Ethelred II of England (“The Unready”) whereby he stopped ravaging England and returned home. Olaf became king of Norway in 995 and tried to convert his country to Christianity before his death in battle in 1000.
At the time of the Domesday Book (1086) Andover had 107 male inhabitants and probably had a total population of about 500. It was quite a large settlement by the standards of the time. (Most villages had only 100 to 150 people). Andover also had 6 watermills which ground grain to flour. In 1175 King Richard I sold Andover a charter granting the townspeople certain rights, forming an merchant guild which took over the government of the town. The members elected two officials called bailiffs who ran the town. In 1201 King John gave the merchants the right to collect royal taxes in Andover themselves. In 1256 Henry III gave the townspeople the right to hold a court and try criminals for offences committed in Andover. Andover also sent MPs to the parliaments of 1295 and 1302-1307. The town was ravaged by two serious fires, one in 1141 and another in 1435.
Andover remained a small market town. Processing wool appears to have been the main industry and street names in the area of the town known as “Sheep Fair” commemorate this. A weekly market, and an annual fair were held.
As well as the Church of St Mary the town had a priory and a hospital run by monks, dedicated to St John the Baptist, and also a lepers hostel to St Mary Magdalene. In 1538 during the Reformation Henry VIII closed the priory and the hospital. In 1571 a free school for the boys of Andover was established. This in time became Andover Grammar School, and is now John Hanson Community School.
In 1599 the town received a new charter from Elizabeth I. The merchants guild was made a corporation and the number of annual fairs was increased from one to three. Like other towns Andover suffered from outbreaks of plague. There were outbreaks in 1603-5, 1625-6 and 1636.
During the 18th century, being situated on the main Exeter – Salisbury – London road Andover became a major stopping point on the stagecoach routes, more than 30 stagecoaches passing through the town each day. In 1789 a canal to Southampton was opened, though this was never a commercial success and closed in 1859. It was replaced by a railway in the 19th century, which was closed down in 1964. The land, together with the adjacent gasworks and P. M. Coombes woodyards, were then sold to the TSB Bank who later built their headquarters there.
During the 19th century the town acquired all the usual additions, a theatre in 1803, gas street lighting in 1838, a fire station and cottage hospital in 1877, a swimming pool opened in 1885 and a recreation ground opened by Common Acre in 1887. A water company was formed in 1875 to provide piped water to the town and a system of sewers and drains was built in 1899-1902. The public library opened in 1897. Despite this burgeoning of the amenities of the town in 1845 a notorious scandal involving the hardships endured by the inmates of the workhouse led indirectly to reform of the Poor Law Act. The town was one of the boroughs reformed by the Municipal Reform Act 1835.
The woollen industry had declined but new industries took it place. Taskers Iron Works opened at Anna Valley in 1809 and flourished.
RAF Andover was opened on Andover Airfield during the First World War and became the site of the RAF Staff College. During the Second World War it was the headquarters of RAF Maintenance Command, and gained a unique place in British history, as the first British military helicopter unit, the Helicopter Training School, was fromed in January 1945 at RAF Andover. The airfield in still in use by the Army Air Corps and the Defence Logistics Organisation and retains an RAF link through the presence of 1213 (Andover) Squadron, Air Training Corps. The Armed Forces Chaplaincy Centre is based locally at Amport House, as is the Army Air Corps Centre and the Museum of Army Flying at Middle Wallop.
In 1932 Andover gained a new industry when the printers for Kelly’s street directories moved to the town. Slowly the town grew and by 1960 had a population of about 17,000.
In 1955 the Town Council decided it would be a good idea to add fluoride to the drinking water to improve dental health. This provoked a furious public response, and a strong anti-fluoridation campaign started. In the 1958 local elections anti-fluoridation candidates swept the board, turning out many established members, and the idea was dropped.
In 1960 the Borough Council was approached by the Greater London Council to become an overspill town, to build houses and take people and industry relocated from the overcrowded capital. Some contend that had the old Borough Council still been in charge this would never have been agreed. But it was, and in 1961 the plan was drawn up to expand to a population of some 47,000 by 1982, with 9,000 new homes to be built.
The first new council houses were ready by 1964 and by 1981 the population had risen to 51,000. A bypass, industrial estates and a new shopping centre were all built. and the town’s character changed completely. Major industries who moved there included Twinings the tea and coffee firm, Ducal Pine Furniture (until they closed in 2003) and Thompson International Publishers, who produce the Pitkin Guides to be found in many churches and other notable buildings. The Town Museum, based in the old grammar school, had a Museum of the Iron Age added in 1986 which houses the finds from excavations at nearby Danebury Hill Fort.
The new council houses proved to be very badly built. It seemed that the local council would have to foot the enormous bill for reconstruction, but after starting legal action against the Greater London Council a settlement was achieved, in which the GLC paid a large sum of money to the local council, who started a programme of refurbishment which finished in 1995.
Today the population of Andover is over 52,000 and has grown in large part by Army soldiers based in one of the many surrounding bases permanently relocating to the area with their families. It is for this reason that the community is often referred to as a "Squaddy" town (slang for British Army soldiers).
The Borough Council and Andover Rural District Council were abolished in the local government reorganisation of 1974, and replaced by Test Valley Borough Council, which included the land down to the edge of Southampton in the south, quite a rural area apart from Andover. Light industry is still the main employer. Situated about 1 hour 20 minutes from London by train there are also quite a few who commute to the capital to work. The tensions between town and country and the “old” and “new” Andover still exist in some measure, and in the future more expansion is planned. Andover is now an unparished area in Test Valley.
Geography
Andover is located at 51°13′00″N 01°28′00″W / 51.21667°N 1.46667°W (51.2167, -1.4667)1.
Mills and Milling
Watermills have played an important part in Andover's history. The Domesday Book of 1086 provides the earliest record of mills in Andover, which identifies eleven mills.
Rooksbury Mill is one of the few surviving mill buildings in Andover. The existence of Rooksbury Mill is first recorded by name in the 17th century. Functioning as a flour mill, it has passed through a succession of owners. Milling ceased in the early 20th century, after which the mill building went through a series of uses including being used as a small theatre. Test Valley Borough Council sold the building in 2002, shortly after it had been devasted by fire following an arson attack. The new owners, Anthony and Sarah de Sigley, restored the building in 2003, rebuilding much of the original structure.