LAST week’s article followed the fortunes of the Mattia family on the journey from Italy to 34 Chantry Street, Andover, where Alphonso opened and expanded his scrap yard, from which he bought and sold all manner of goods and wares, making innumerable useful contacts and becoming wealthy in the process. This week’s account follows his fortunes after the First World War, when he branched out into a new way of making money, that of building houses.

In fact, his first attempt at building seems to have been as early as 1913, when he drew up plans for what was called a ‘common lodging house’ to be erected on the back of 123 New Street. The surviving documents make clear that this was for single men or married couples but not for single women. Upstairs was a large communal bedroom with two smaller and separate rooms for married couples. A large kitchen downstairs would be used by all the occupants. Such lodging houses were a cheap form of accommodation which were subject to statutory ruling and overseen by local councils. The plans survive but it may never have been built, while today’s 123 New Street may not be the same house. Streets were subject to re-numbering at times, particularly if there was a sizable increase or reduction in the houses. During the 1930s, a slum clearance programme in New Street vastly reduced the number of dwellings there.    

READ MORE: Italian immigrant Alphonso Mattia who moved to Andover and became seriously wealthy

Angelina Mattia with Jestine, Alfred (Fred) and Rose in the yard at 34 Chantry Street c.1916 (Image: Contributed) By 1923, Alphonso had acquired a block of ground at the corner of Charlton Road and Mylen Road. This extended to at least the line of what is Hanson Road today which has entrances from both these roads. Throughout 1923 and 1924 a line of bungalows was built along the south side of Charlton Road - still stand standing, all clearly similar to each other. There are bungalows to the same design on the west side of Mylen Road, which may also have been his. Two of Alphonso’s grandchildren, John Pearl and Gloria Barclay whose mother Rose was the eldest daughter, said that Alphonso owned diverse areas of undeveloped land which he bought and sold from time to time. The plot of ground on the corner of Charlton and Mylen Roads was a vacant site when he bought it, but it was close to fast-developing areas, as well as being almost opposite the planned War Memorial Hospital that was to open in 1926.

Sadly, tragedy struck the Mattia family in November 1925 when Angelina, the mother of eight surviving children (though she had given birth to 13) died at the young age of 36. Her final child, Paul, was born in the previous February and she had failed to fully recover afterwards. Gloria says that her grandmother was told to stay in bed for far too long and had developed a condition then called ‘white leg’, caused by a deep vein thrombosis.

John and Gloria’s mother, Rose, the only girl apart from two-year-old Phyllis, at just 14 had to step up to become the mother of the family, while baby Paul was willingly taken on by another couple who had no children of their own. This may have been William and Elsie Knight; the 1939 register shows Paul as living with them at the time, then aged 14. William and Elsie had married in 1923 and one William Knight was living next door to the Mattias in Chantry Street in 1925 (Elsie was then too young at under 30 to be on the electoral register). The Knights moved to 27 Portland Place before 1931 and another Knight family lived next door to them. This may tie in with Alphonso building a pair of semi-detached houses there in 1929 – his only project in Portland Place which was a much older street. The Knights’ final move to 74 New Street was made about the same time as the 1939 register was taken.

Alphonso’s project in the Broadway has been described in an earlier article (Andover Advertiser, 5 July 2024) and this included terraces in Suffolk Road and Leicester Place. In similar architectural style, Alphonso drew up plans in early 1930 for three blocks of four terraces in the road he was to name after himself - Mattia Road. Running east from Mylen Road, it then turned a corner and ran down to meet up with Charlton Road. It was a new, private road, constructed near the border of his land holding and designed to make the most of the development potential. By 1934, there were 28 occupied houses on the first stretch leading from Mylen Road - the three blocks of four terraces on the south side and a line of semis on the north. Doubtless, Alphonso would have planned to continue the project around the corner towards Charlton Road but sadly, he died on 30 October 1936.

SEE MORE: David Borrett column: The Broadway and how it evolved to become a row of shops

His obituary, published in the Andover Advertiser less than two weeks later, regretted in cinematic style that ‘a romantic figure has passed from the Andover screen’. A brief description of his life was followed by: ‘Towards the end of his life Mr Mattia met many reverses, but he rose superior to them, taking the rough with the smooth in his happy fashion. However, one looks at his strenuously-lived career, one feels bound to admit that he was at the least a man who had, by enterprise and character, proved that romance is not wholly dead in business today, and one who had lived life at its best and worst, and left his mark in the town of his adoption.’

His death was swiftly followed by certain manoeuvrings on the part of Andover Borough Council that are still unclear to this day. Gloria and John were told by their mother Rose that within a week of her father’s death, council officials were in Mattia Road removing all the manholes with the name Mattia on them and replacing them with their own. Further, the road name itself was changed – evidently within days, as Alphonso’s obituary records the road as being ‘first named after him but now re-named Hanson Road.’ Presumably the council took steps to legally adopt the road which relieved the tenants from being responsible for its upkeep but did it also ‘adopt’ the houses on it? Significant or not, of all the 28 householders of Mattia Road in 1934, just three of these were still living there in 1938 - all the others had been replaced. In the same year, the town clerk wrote to the Land Registry, evidently trying to trace anything the Mattia family might have owned. Was there sharp practice going on here? The family certainly think so. Some years later, a retired QC was interested enough to investigate the matter for the family but was told in no uncertain terms by someone in an official capacity to ‘let sleeping dogs lie’. It all remains a mystery.

Travelling down the A303 today, readers may notice, just beyond Sparkford, the Mattia Diner dedicated to the era of Rock and Roll, and wonder whether there is a connection to the Andover Mattias. The answer is yes; it belongs to another grandson of Alphonso, son of Fred pictured above.

If you are interested in local history, why not join Andover History and Archaeology Society? Details can be found at andoverlocalhistoryarchaeology.uk.