ONE HUNDRED AND TWENTY-FIVE YEARS AGO — 8 AUGUST 1890

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TO LET, the “ROSE & CHEQUERS” INN, Market Place (opposite the Town Hall and General Post Office), Andover, Hants. Incoming at a valuation in the usual way for trade fixtures, &c. Immediate possession. Eleven bedrooms, good trade offices, bar, stables, yard, &c., &c. House used largely by lodgers and travellers. Rent £24.—Apply to H.Hammans, Brewer, Andover.

ONE HUNDRED YEARS AGO — 6 AUGUST 1915

METHODIST ACTIVITY — SITE CHOSEN FOR UP-TO-DATE CHURCH IN ANDOVER

The Primitive Methodists of Andover have gone in for a forward movement, and it is the laudable desire to carry it forward to a successful issue. The ambitious scheme which they have in hand is the erection of an up-to-date chapel, with all the necessary accommodation for teaching their Sunday scholars. It is a movement in which all are interested, and so far the project has had quite a happy run.

A site has been chosen, and can now be seen fenced round at the end of East Street, opposite Clare House. Mr.H.Gamman was approached with a view to purchase, and he has sold the plot (60ft.by 177ft.) for the sum of £150. In addition he has been immensely kind to the Methodists, for all the fencing which now surrounds the site has been given, and at Monday’s rejoicing services in the little chapel, the meeting decided unanimously to ask the Rev.W.L.Taylor, circuit minister, to write a letter of appreciative thanks to Mr.Gamman. When the offer was first embraced all the money was not forthcoming, but by the specified time every penny had been handed over to Mr.Gamman. This shows that the Methodists of Andover are in earnest. For several months Mrs.Harwood has been acting as collector, and a regular amount has been subscribed every week and entrusted to the care of the treasurer, Mr.J.Noyes.

SEVENTY-FIVE YEARS AGO — 9 AUGUST 1940

ENSA DIRECTOR ON THE PLAIN

A famous figure in the entertainment and film world, Mr.Basil Dean, who is director of entertainments for the N.A.F.F.I., and head of Ensa, paid a visit to the district on Monday and spent part of the evening at a Garrison Theatre watching Hughie Green’s gang show, one of the finest, incidentally, Ensa has staged locally. It has drawn good audiences. Wal Langtry the veteran comedian is as well known to the older generation as Max Miller is to this and has come out of retirement to entertain the troops. He has thoroughly enjoyed it too, though the salary he is receiving with Ensa is but a mere fraction of what he will be receiving when he appears at the Argyll, Birkenhead, shortly. Then there are the Hengler Brothers, two artistes well over military age, who have delighted tens of thousands in London music halls and pantomimes. There are other first class artistes, including lady dancers, in the show.

FIFTY YEARS AGO — 6 AUGUST 1965

PARKING BAN MAY WORRY CHURCH . . . SAYS VICAR’S WIFE

Andover Borough Council has decided to recommend to Hampshire County Council a 24-hour parking ban in the following streets: Upper High Street, Chantry Street, West Street, Marlborough Street, New Street (from the junction with Newbury Street to the Youth Employment Office) and Newbury Street.

The decision to include Marlborough Street in the ban met with strong opposition from Ald.Mrs.B.Machin, wife of Andover’s vicar, who said: “I feel very cross. This is going to penalise the major place of worship in the town — St.Mary’s — I have looked at other place of worship in the town and all have parking places nearby. What are we going to do with bridal cars and funerals I don’t know.”

TWENTY-FIVE YEARS AGO — 10 AUGUST 1990

TESTING TIMES FOR LUNN FAMILY

Revel in the nostalgia of a century on the world’s most famous chalkstream, the romance between the Lunn family and the River Test and the historic traditions of the world’s oldest fly fishing club at Houghton , captured in ‘A Particular Lunn — One Hundred Glorious Years On The Test’.

Author Mick Lunn, whose father and grandfather before him were head river keepers for the Houghton club’s beautiful and secluded 15 mile share of the Test, records the Lunn’s long association with the river — whose magical life cycle he says has never ceased to be a source of wonder and pleasure to him.

The title takes its name from one of the 40 fly patterns invented by grandfather William J.Lunn.

Mick Lunn, nearing retirement and possibly the end of the Lunn dynasty , draws upon his experience as a fish farmer, estate manager, overseer of all the work done by the river keepers and a guise to the club’s members and guests, to cast us into 100 years of careful tendering, through the techniques of ‘fishing the rise’ of the Test’s plump trout and the hackles and hookshanks of fly tying.

He lets us into the exclusive realms of the Houghton Fishing Club and behind the doors of the clubroom in the Grosvenor Hotel, where a record is kept of every fish caught since 1882.

The family has for now ‘run out’ of Lunns, although Mick has an eight year old grandson, Ben, to whom the book is dedicated: “My father was one of four children and it was only he who chose to do what his father had done. I was lucky as I was the only child and I always knew what I was going to do.”

TEN YEARS AGO — 5 AUGUST 2005

BOROUGH PLANS TO CLEAN UP

A Clean Up The Borough campaign could soon be hitting Andover, backed up by a new get-tough policy to protect the environment.

The initiative — which comes seven months after the Andover Advertiser launched its own Make a Difference campaign — is to be discussed by members of Test Valley Borough Council’s executive next week.

And of it gets the go-ahead two temporary part-time troubleshooters will be hired to give the scheme teeth as the full-time enforcement team is trained up.

The policy plan has been thrashed out under the Clean Neighbourhoods and Environment Act and focuses on the prevention of littering, graffiti, dog fouling and serving litter notices against shops.