ONE HUNDRED AND SIXTY-FOUR YEARS AGO – FRIDAY 28 SEPTEMBER 1860

CORRSPONDENCE – ST MARY BOURNE

Sir: Will you allow me through the medium of your widely circulating paper, to remind the gentry of this village and neighbourhood, that the long winter evenings are fast drawing near; and to express a hope that something may be done, if only as a beginning, in the way of intellectual improvement for the numerous young people of both sexes who have at present no higher aim than village gossip and the village ale house. Yours, Observant Villager.

ONE HUNDRED AND TWENTY-FIVE YEARS AGO – FRIDAY 29 SEPTEMBER 1899

CORRESPONDENCE - JUSTICE’S JUSTICE

Sir: I was considerably surprised and shocked in reading an account of a case heard before the Whitchurch Petty Sessions on Friday last, when two boys aged 14 and 15 years, were charged with stealing a few apples from a tree in the garden of an unoccupied house, and were accordingly awarded the cruel sentences of 14 days’ imprisonment for the younger and 21 days for the elder, both with hard labour. With regard to the younger prisoner one would have supposed that the application of the birch would have been a humane and more suitable form of punishment. This, the magistrates had the power to inflict, and it would have been quite sufficient to meet the requirements of justice. Does not all this clearly prove that the sooner the majority of the unpaid, amateur magistrates are superseded the better, and the administration of local justice placed in the hands of competent stipendiaries? It is to be hoped that the rising generation may live to see this accomplished.

ONE HUNDRED YEARS AGO – FRIDAY 26 SEPTEMBER 1924

ON CARNIVAL NIGHT

Sidney Baker, of London Street, was summoned for assaulting and beating Thomas William Hiscock, of Little London, and he pleaded guilty. Mr T E Longman represented the complainant, whose story was that on the Saturday night in Carnival week, defendant was riding a tricycle in the town and when he got opposite complainant, the defendant hit him on the nose and he could not stop the bleeding for more than two hours. On the following Monday evening, Baker went to him and said he was sorry he did it. Defendant said Hiscock threw an apple core at him, but complainant said he did not do so. The chairman said it was rather unfortunate that defendant should have retaliated with such severity. However, they had made good friends and the case would be dismissed.

SEVENTY-FIVE YEARS AGO – FRIDAY 30 SEPTEMBER 1949

ADVERTISER OPINION – FLOODING

For the second time within six months, residents and occupiers of business premises in the lower part of High Street, Bridge Street and West Street have had the unpleasant experience of ground floors flooded after a particularly heavy shower; for the second time in six months they have grabbed brooms, pails, sacks and other tackle, and sallied forth in a vain attempt to avert disaster. One can but sympathise with them. Each recurrence wreaks fresh damage and increases their anger. To be flooded out with ordinary rainwater would be bad enough, but they are flooded out with a revolting, stinking agglomeration of rainwater, excreta and sewer contents, since in this part of the town the surface water is directed into the foul sewers. These, in a heavy shower, are overloaded, the manhole covers burst open and the mess floods the streets. A jeweller in Bridge Street tells us that he has had to leave windows open and use large quantities of disinfectant for days to remove the smell; in the Star and Garter hotel the large dining room carpet has been ruined and half of the wood block floor in a large room at the back has been destroyed. In the nearby tobacconists, there were last time four inches of water and in the International Stores the water bubbles up through a manhole cover left, if you please, under the display space of a window. On the opposite side, Mr Burden’s fish shop was similarly inundated; in West Street, a tradesman used sacks to try to prevent water entering his shop. Most of these are quite large ratepayers and surely deserve some compensation but they can get none. We know that the drains are antiquated and we are told by those who know, that engineers design drains to cope with the demands they are normally called upon to meet, but do not cater for the abnormal – though the abnormal seems to be more frequent than it used to be. A scheme to obviate the flooding in High Street and Bridge Street was abandoned earlier this year on the grounds of expense. But quite clearly, the council must now take this scheme back out of its pigeon-hole and fix the problem.

FORTY-SEVEN YEARS AGO – FRIDAY 30 SEPTEMBER 1977

RETURN OF THE TROGGS

Andover’s famous pop group – The Troggs – returned to the town on Saturday night for their first home concert in more than 11 years. It was the group’s first open-air performance, but the crowd at the Walled Meadow was a pitiful 350. A combination of bad weather, and perhaps the rushed publicity kept the attendance well below the expected 1,000. But it was no reflection on the group, who gave full value in a 50-minute performance, with the inclusion of popular old hits such as ‘Wild Thing’ and ‘A Girl Like You’, together with some of the latest numbers. Torrential rain just before The Troggs came on forced some of the crowd to leave.

But those who stayed – and they were remarkably varied in age – obviously enjoyed the show. Financially however, the concert was far from a success. The profits were to be split between the groups – including supporting acts Papilion and Breaker – and Andover Football Club, but it just broke even. Troggs lead singer, Reg Presley, said afterwards: ‘Before there was nowhere big enough to hold people; now there is somewhere big enough but not enough people to fill it.’