Perhaps only the bandstand (itself now removed) provides a clue as to where this is, as everything in front has changed.

This photograph was taken in the 1950s by the late Robert Vincent from the top floor of the Swan Court flats, looking out across the Vigo Road Recreation Ground. The top half of a lamp-post in the foreground marks East Street which then ran in a straight line from its junction with Vigo Road, down past the United Reformed Church, the Manse and the Georgian office buildings still extant today.

Behind the lamp-post is a landscaped area and in the centre of the picture is the bowling green. Beyond that was a small putting green before reaching the path that ran alongside the bandstand, which was soon to become an aviary. Today’s recreation ground only begins at the point where the bandstand stood and it is startling to realise how much ground was lost when the large roundabout and underpass was constructed in the 1960s. Recent plans have hopes of removing those modern incursions and re-instating a leisure area.

The recreation ground itself, in contrast to the ancient Common Acre that runs alongside it, is historically a recent addition to public ground. It was bought by Andover Borough Council from Winchester College in 1887 as part of the local celebrations for Queen Victoria’s golden jubilee. Previously, the College had owned it as Callice Farm for centuries, together with many other local buildings around the town, from which it received an income in the form of leases and rents.

Since 1887, the recreation ground has remained an area of leisure for Andover. Several changes in layout have been made over the years, together with the additions of swings, slide and roundabout, gardens, a tennis court, a putting green and a bowling green, according to the demands of the times. In 1930 the then mayor, Edwin Lovell, had the idea of building a bandstand, and after some months of fund-raising it was erected within the shade of an old walnut tree that had wooden seats around its trunk. An opening ceremony on the evening of 5 Aug 1931 included a tea party in the Guildhall for 170 old people, after which there was a procession to the bandstand, where a crowd of several hundred listened to a programme of entertainment.

The entrance to the recreation ground was once to the north side, adjacent to Vigo Road, where a pair of capped stone pillars held metal gates. In the 1960s, young children were excited to reach the Children’s Corner where a display of popular TV characters such as The Flintstones or Yogi Bear were constructed out of stone, wood and topiary, with a multitude of bulbs and plants also being utilised in the tableau, the work of Andover Parks department. It was a final fling as within a few years that whole area was lost to the modern roundabout.