The Steadman family and Cotswold house on Alexandra Road

It seems the young, uncluttered brain is able to store such memories somewhere so that even a lifetime later they still remain accessible and easily recalled.

One master at the grammar school who had retired before my time there, but was still spoken of with some affection by both pupils and members of staff was (William) Harold Steadman who taught Physics.

Born at Bromham, near Devizes, in 1904, Harold was the son of Louis Vere Steadman, son of a Warminster tailor, and his wife Margaret who hailed from Downton, near Salisbury.

Harold’s father, Louis Vere Steadman, headmaster of Bromham School (1877-1976) (Image: Supplied) The young Harold was well-immersed in the business of education; both his parents were teachers and around the time of Harold’s birth, his father was promoted to the position of headmaster at Bromham School, a role he held until 1938.

Louis was an early motorist, the first in the village to own a car, and son Harold rode a motorbike from the age of 14 in order to get to Devizes Grammar School.

After Devizes, Harold went to Bristol University. He longed to be an engineer but was advised to study Physics as teachers of this subject were more in demand.

He met Phyllis Lewis at the local tennis club and they married in May 1932; at that time Harold was teaching at Wanstead High School.

Accordingly, Harold added a side-car to his motorcycle.

The couple made their home at ‘Coombe Dingle’ in Gidea Park, not far away, and had two sons, Roger in 1935 and Keith in 1939.

With the family doubling in size, the motorcycle had to go and Harold bought a Fiat car, later replaced by a 1935 Standard 12 saloon.

The Steadman family at home in Cotswold, Alexandra Road, Andover, c.1951. From left to right: Phyllis, Harold, Keith and Roger (Image: Supplied) Shortly after World War II broke out, Wanstead’s High was evacuated to Chippenham, close to where Harold’s parents lived, and conveniently, the family was able to stay with them at School House in Bromham.

After the perils of six years of war in London, with its hap-hazard bombings, sirens and night-time jaunts to underground air-raid shelters, Harold and Phyllis took up the opportunity of moving to Andover when a teaching post became available at the local grammar school.

At the same time, Phyllis’s parents sold their house in Ilford and moved to Andover with them.

By combining financial resources, the extended family was able to buy a sizable house in Alexandra Road, named Cotswold which had just become available.

READ MORE: Back Through the Pages: Police traps in Andover and old lamp to be re-erected

Originally built for the Town Clerk, T E Longman, in about 1904, his widow later altered it to accommodate two families, one upstairs and one down, although there were no actual dividing walls.

Harold and Phyllis’s younger son Keith describes it as one house with two bathrooms, one on each floor, with the box room on the first floor turned into a kitchenette – a well-disguised semi, but horizontal instead of vertical. When Mrs Longman died in 1936, the house was sold at auction for £1,000 to the Bragg family who lived almost opposite at Wonham, now a residential home called Clifford House.

The Braggs let Cotswold to Air Vice Marshal Strafford during the war and subsequently to grammar school teachers Markham and Dalton and their respective wives, one couple upstairs and the other down (very convenient for both as the school gates were no more than 100 yards away) but eventually the Braggs sold it to builder Victor Dunning for £3,000, a very good profit in less than 10 years.

Victor may have seen development potential as the house had a large garden to the side but for whatever reason, he sold it on soon afterwards for £3,250.

This was when Harold and Phyllis bought it. Moving in with Phyllis’s parents, John and Ethel Lewis, the arrangement was that the senior couple would occupy the ground floor and the family take over the two upper floors.

Elder brother Roger, perhaps as a result of his war-time ‘itinerant’ education, was sent to Kent College, a boarding school in Canterbury.

In order to pay the fees, Phyllis went to work at Wolversdene School, Andover.

Meanwhile, Harold taught Physics at the grammar school.

Some of the pupils thought he resembled the well-known Hollywood Academy Award and nicknamed him ‘Oscar’ but generally he was known, to both pupils and staff alike, as ‘Steady’.

The nickname was apt as Harold was a calm and patient man and loved his garage workshop at Cotswold where he accumulated a large range of tools including a lathe, circular saw and drilling machine, all electrically powered, and he was often found at work in there.

His wife took to ringing a cow bell to signal mealtimes, otherwise he might never appear.

Maintaining the house and garden were other pursuits he followed with enthusiasm, from felling large elm trees at the bottom of the garden to ascending a ladder and painting the highest parts of the Cotswold woodwork.

Indeed, it was while Harold was up a ladder in the front garden that an amusing drama played itself out around 1951.

There had been a series of out-of-hours burglaries at the school and, unknown to the staff, the recently-appointed head, Mr Rodgers, had arranged for a plain clothes policeman to be posted there at weekends.

On one of these occasions, teacher Dennis F Markham who lived at Cotswold before the Steadmans bought it had cause to go to the school and was startled to see somebody else there. 

Both thought the other was the burglar and Markham started to be chased.

He ran out of the school and in passing Cotswold, saw Harold at the top of a ladder painting and shouted out, ‘Steady, ring the police; I’ve just seen the burglar and he’s chasing me’!

Roger, out in the front garden at the time, recalls the pursuing ‘burglar’ going by and remembers a man both thick-set and burly who looked the part exactly.

The only thing missing was a mask over his face. The headmaster was later criticised for not telling the staff about the lookout.

In contrast to his elder brother, Keith Steadman experienced a more settled education and passed his 11-plus at Wolversdene School, so went to Andover Grammar School, relieving the concerns of his mother who had worried they would not be able to afford another set of school fees - though Keith would rather have gone to Peter Symonds, as did his friend Stuart Offord who lived nearby in Croye Close.

There was some awkwardness in having his own father teach him Physics, especially as Keith came top in that subject; he was concerned his fellow pupils would think he was being favoured above them.

The solution was obvious: he deliberately ensured that in future he would not do so well, though he did excel in English, French and Geography.

SEE ALSO: Stannah opens new factory in Andover as investment continues

In 1958, he left Andover to work at the Hampstead Heath branch of Barclay’s bank and was among the last wave of those drafted to do National Service, when he had the opportunity to learn Russian. Subsequently, he joined the Civil Service.

Sadly, Phyllis Steadman did not live a long life, in contrast to her husband Harold.

While on holiday in Malta during 1978, she died suddenly at the age of 71 and is buried in the Ta’ Braxia cemetery near Valetta.

Harold’s final years were spent in Andover Nursing Home, where he died in 2000.

Cotswold, 8 Alexandra Road, about 25 years ago (Image: Supplied)Shortly before this, in order to pay the nursing home fees, Roger and Keith were forced to sell Cotswold, this time for £295,000.

In today’s market, it seems a bargain but of course the sum was worth much more money at that time.

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