This view of the former vicarage in Newbury Street comes from an Andover Official Guide published around 1946 and is captioned ‘An old-world corner, near the church’.

The image is of quiet serenity, but it would not be long before the increase in car ownership brought a high degree of traffic into the area.

The upper High Street, now completely closed to vehicles, was then two-way, as was its continuation into Newbury Street, Chantry Street and Marlborough Street.

Here, just to the left of the photographer, there was the staggered junction with East Street, Vigo Road and New Street, all through-roads to various points on the compass.

In 1809, this grand early Georgian house became the residence of Dr William Stanley Goddard, his wife the former Henrietta Gale and their niece Martha Gale, who was adopted by the couple.

Dr Goddard, who had then recently retired as headmaster of Winchester College, is largely remembered today as the man who demolished the old Norman church at Andover and replaced it with the present St Mary’s, it is said (by his detractors) to improve the view from his window, though he himself saw it as doing ‘a kind act by the parish’.

The latter is the more accurate motivation as it was not until he was widowed and over 80 years old that he set about the project for which he is most remembered.

By that time, he had already been living in Andover for 30 years.

The property had extensive grounds at the back. Maria Titeridge, writing in 1915, remembered going to school in a building that overlooked the back garden.

Not only did it include the present Swan Court arcade of shops, but it continued beyond Black Swan Yard to a walled kitchen garden as well.

However, she could not see into it because the ‘school windows were too high.’

It was not until the death of Dr Goddard in 1845 and by the terms of his will that this house in Newbury Street became the vicarage.

Before that, the St Mary’s incumbent, Charles Ridding, used the old Priory House that stood to the north of the old church on part of the present cemetery.

However, that was not the vicarage either and Ridding was the only vicar who lived there.

Priory House was a 15th century re-building of a small monastic enclave that had been set up when William the Conqueror granted the church at Andover to the abbey of St Florent in France.

The Andover priory was a very small affair, just enough to maintain a semblance of influence locally with little more than two monks in attendance.

When all the ‘alien priories’ were abolished in 1414, it was Winchester College that benefited from the change.

The College rebuilt it and, as was its usual practice, leased it out to tenants.

Priory House was a desirable residence, and the lease was long held by successive members of the Venables family, followed by the Pollens.

It is unclear where the real vicarage was sited but Ridding’s daughter-in-law Laura, writing in 1908, described it as ‘Rats Castle’ and that Revd Ridding refused to take his young family there.

Unfortunately, like other parishes, Andover had long suffered from non-resident vicars who did not make their home in the same place as their incumbency, so perhaps the rats for many years were left free to take up residency instead.

Local historian Arthur Bennett, writing in the 1930s, pinpoints a building that in a document of 1766 was called the Old Vicarage, sited between the churchyard wall and Newbury Street, opposite today’s Priory Lodge.

It was then occupied by a baker called Rout and had a frontage of 100 ft.

He says it was commonly called Rats Castle but whether he is repeating Laura Ridding’s description or whether it was called that in 1766 is unclear.

If Bennett’s observations are accurate, this suggests that even in 1766 the building was no longer a working vicarage and rented out.

The date fits quite well as, before Ridding’s arrival, Andover’s last resident vicar was Jonathan Alleyne who died in 1762.

The second part of this column will be published next week.