David Borrett: Winchester College's impact on Andover

The college was founded by William of Wykeham in 1382. Such foundations, notably in Oxford and Cambridge, were formed in the pursuit of learning so as to educate the future men of influence who would run the country and fill the positions of power; but these seats of learning also had to be financed in the form of endowments and investments that would bring in money. Wykeham was one of the most influential men at that time, being both Bishop of Winchester and chancellor of England, and crucially having the ear of the king. He was therefore in a unique position to secure financially the college he founded.

When William of Normandy conquered this country in 1066, he ensured that French religious institutions were in receipt of funds from the new English territory. The small religious house of Andover priory was established next to the church at some point during his reign and the church estate of local tithes and rents, was granted to the Abbey of St Florent in Saumur, Normandy, for the next 300 years or more. Andover’s priory was one of 96 such houses across England and there were many uneasy tensions that punctuated that period over such payments. Finally, in 1413, the alien priories, as they were called, were abolished by Henry V and the property of Andover priory was neatly diverted by Cardinal Beaufort, the then Bishop of Winchester and uncle of the king, to Winchester College in the following year.

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Winchester College, as depicted by A R Quinton over 100 years ago. (Image: A R Quinton) Andover at that time was a small town but it was growing. From the central high point where the church stood, it had spread down the arterial thoroughfares of modern-day Chantry and West streets, Marlborough Street, the upper and lower High Street, as well as Bridge Street and London Street. With a market place in the centre and the main road from London to the west and another from Southampton to the north it had become a convenient stopping point for travellers, made more attractive with facilities to improve their stay. From the outset, the college invested heavily in Andover and the succession of hand-written leases to each property it owned, covering a period of some 500 years, are a priceless record of estate history. Such leases included large stretches of farmland as well as buildings. The Callice or Callice Farm for example, covered the area now encompassed by the Vigo Road recreation ground and beyond.

Sadly, in 1435, a great fire raged in Andover which devastated the town. Buildings of wood and thatch were only too vulnerable to the effects of fire and some that were not burned to the ground were badly damaged. Perhaps some properties escaped the fire but that is conjectural. What the college lost, it set about re-building and there are records of it remitting the rents to its lessees for short periods in the 1430s. These lessees may not have been the occupiers of the property as much leased property was then sub-let to third parties who did live there. From the college’s point of view, it was simply easier to deal with a small number of local landlords whose finances allowed them to purchase leases for 40 years or so and for the landlords to worry about rent collecting. One lease could cover several houses all at once or just refer to one house.

Vacant plots of land on which houses had been destroyed in 1435 were referred to as ‘void ground’ and it was on one of these that the college built the Angel Inn. Tradition has it that this was on the site of an earlier inn belonging to Winchester College, called appropriately the College Inn but there seems to be no evidence that this is so and it is more likely this was land the college bought after 1435, as it did other ‘void’ plots.

The Angel was a prestigious project on which the college did not stint. The site was in prime position, fully visible to on-coming traffic from London, as it turned from present-day Newbury Street into the upper High Street, its impressive front entrance being right on the turn. Plans were drawn up in 1444, with the king’s carpenter who designed Eton College being consulted on the design. It took 10 years to build and cost around £400, a substantial sum that included Caen stone fireplaces in the principal chambers and an unusual internal roof structure of cruck form, comprising scissor braces to support the roof timbers, rather than a simpler rafter construction.

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The Angel Inn during the 1960s (Image: Charles Wardell) Other early houses that the college owned are referred to by name and so we can read of ‘Peter Rugge’s messuage’, ‘Payne’s messuage in Soper’s Lane’, and ‘Martyne’s house’.

These would all have been reasonably prestigious buildings, with the name taken from that of the original occupier. Then we have ‘Thomes tenements in High Street’, ‘seven tenements and a barn’ and ‘five tenements in High Street’, which were each all together in one lease.

Many of the multiple-property leases were separated as time went on and there were more occupiers who dealt directly with the college when renewal was due. The annual rents themselves were modest but each time a lease was renewed a more prohibitive sum, known as a fine, was imposed. The annual rent for the Angel Inn was £6 13/6d for hundreds of years but the fine to renew a 40-year lease that had virtually run out could be at least £50. It was common practice to renew before the 40-year term was up and the sum to be paid was dependent on the number of years already spent. In 1682, landlord William Popinjoy paid £16 to renew a lease that had already run for 14 years, whereas in 1640, the great-grandmother of the poet Alexander Pope, paid £45 to renew her lease that had already run for 26 years.

It all worked reasonably well until the 20th century when such landed estates became increasingly difficult to justify in terms of financial viability. Farming, on which it all depended, entered a depression from which it never recovered, as foreign imports swamped the British markets, while the houses suffered from neglect in terms of maintenance. Winchester College started to sell off their properties if tenants requested it, although it was not so radical as other college landowners and the college may yet still own bits and pieces in and around Andover. At Monxton however, Kings College, Cambridge sold the entire village and its two farms in 1921, all of which it owned, on the advice of the man who was later to become one of the century’s most famous economists – John Maynard Keynes – in his then role as the college’s bursar. He rightly saw that the money would be better invested in the new equities, rather than a hotch-potch of rural communities. It was indeed the beginning of a new era.

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