There can’t be many long-time Andover families who do not have a photograph or two taken by this old established firm whose presence in the town lasted for over a century.

There was always stiff competition for business over that time but although a number of other local studios were set up, none of them lasted longer than the career of the photographer himself.

In contrast, Howard’s passed from father to daughter and then, after the formation of a limited company, to Mr Ralph Page, who as photographer and proprietor, ran the business for a further 30 years or so.

It began with Charlie Howard who was born in Andover in 1863, a son of carpenter John Howard.

At the age of 17 he was an engine fitter but soon after this he must have taken up photography.

Little of his early work is recorded but that which remains is labelled Howard and Cornelius with the address recorded as 65 London Street in 1885, and 53 London Street by 1889.

Neither of these private and unassuming addresses were likely to incorporate studios that the public could visit, so he must have been a roving photographer who either worked outside or attended his clients at home.

Nothing is known of Cornelius as a photographer but was he perhaps Henry Cornelius, a successful bootmaker with a shop at the bottom of London Street, who could have provided some initial financial help?

With Howard as the first-named in the ‘partnership’, yet still barely 21, Cornelius may never have played an active part in the business.

By 1891, Charlie Howard was at 74 High Street which are the premises shown here.

However, by 1901 he had moved to the opposite side of the street, to No 81, and opened what he called the Rembrandt Studios.

He married in 1882 and had ten children with his wife Sarah.

At least three of these entered the photography business and son Charles and one of his sisters started a studio in Chichester.

Another daughter Edith took photography to her heart and from an early age assisted her father who died at the age of 57 in 1921.

Edith took over the business and when the opportunity presented itself she decided to move back across the road to No 74.

Edith re-vamped the shop, built a fashionable studio and created a new shop front. The photograph shows it newly installed in about 1933.

Many people worked at Howard’s over the years, one being the excellent colourist Miss Elvie Cooper who was highly skilled at giving the otherwise black and white photographs some delicate shades of colour by hand.

Eventually she became manageress of the shop and acted as mayoress to the first woman Andover mayor, Olive Harvey, in 1949.

Howard’s became a limited company in 1947.

Ten years later, Edith sold the business to Mr Page and moved to Bournemouth where she died aged 95 in 1982.

The shop finally closed in the early 1990s.