This photograph from about 1920 shows the large shop of Clark Bros who were fishmongers, fruiterers and poulterers at 21-25 Bridge Street.

The shop belonged to the brothers Tom and Will Clark who demolished the earlier set of premises on the site and built anew, a building that included spacious domestic accommodation for the family as well as a row of first floor offices fronted by bay windows that were let to accountants and solicitors.

Tom Clark who was also an excellent chess player can be seen on the right, and his younger brother Will to the left.

The two little girls in the photograph are Tom’s two daughters, Violet (left) and Daphne (right).

Both brothers, Tom and Will, were born in Clerkenwell in 1883 and 1885 respectively and Tom had learnt the fishmonger’s trade in Wimborne, having been trained by a friend of his, Alfred Robertson, who had also come from Clerkenwell.

By 1911 Tom had moved to Andover and his brother Will had joined him in business there.

The first shop was at 8A Bridge Street, and they lived above.

Tom married in 1912 the daughter of the foreman of Frederick Ellen’s auctioneers, Violet Inkpen, who, it is recorded, worked as a bookkeeper and cashier for a fishmonger, so in all likelihood this was for her future husband.

The birth of two daughters and the First World War may have put everything on hold but business was evidently good enough to expand massively by 1920 when it is thought the new premises were built.

The new building occupied the street length of four earlier shop units including, as can be seen on the left of the picture, a single shop to rent out at No 19.

This latter shop was the premises of cycle agents Soper and Co before they were replaced by Gifford’s the radio dealers in the 1930s, and then P Squire (Andover) Ltd in the 1940s.

It was to remain as Squires until very recently, with the late Alec Holloway managing the business for over 70 years before retiring.

Clarks’ was patronised by the gentry of the district as well as the local populace and deliveries to the surrounding country estates – initially by pony and trap and later with a customised motor vehicle - were remembered by the two daughters who were born to Tom and Violet before WWI.

The elder of these daughters, also Violet, was carnival queen in 1934 and when war broke out in 1939 both Tom’s then adult daughters involved themselves in ARP work, with their uncle, Will Clark, acting as an ARP warden.

The two brothers stayed in Andover until the early 1940s when they retired to Walkford, near Highcliffe-on-Sea, although Clark Bros continued as a business in Andover until the late 1950s.

Two more daughters, Elizabeth and Anne, had been born to Tom and Violet between 1929 and 1933 and they of course moved with them, as well as Will who had remained single.

The shop in Andover later became Belgroves, which was a similar type of business, and is today occupied by Domino’s.