This photograph of what was once a brewery at the top of George Yard was taken by Charles Wardell in 1967.

The walkways and thoroughfares of this area have changed so much that it is near impossible to align the scene of fifty years ago with today’s familiar geography.

Beyond the shop to the left, running north to south, was East Street but most of the area shown here would be on the present Eastern Avenue.

Eagle-eyed readers may just be able to make out the square tower of the Drill Hall, later the Country Bumpkin, but even that burned down nearly 40 years ago, meaning that there is nothing in the picture that remains standing today.

Andover Advertiser: This is how the top of George Yard in Andover looks today.This is how the top of George Yard in Andover looks today.

There were several small breweries in Andover during the 19th century, a larger-scale development from individuals brewing beer at home or publicans brewing to sell from their own licensed houses. These new breweries bought up pubs that were then tied to the brewery, but also supplied retail outlets.

This one in George Yard, called the Andover Steam Brewery on a map of 1873, was first run by William and Sarah Drover who kept the nearby George Inn but by 1850 it was in the hands of William Colcock.

William and Phoebe Colcock were Quakers and had married in Norwich in 1836.

At the time of the marriage, William was a Westminster grocer and tea dealer but he was declared bankrupt in 1840 and the family moved to Micheldever.

In 1849, a new bankruptcy act enabled Colcock to start up once more in business.

For nearly 20 years the brewery appears to have prospered but wife Phoebe died in 1868 and their son Edward, who may have been destined to take over the brewery, sadly died aged 26 the following year.

By 1871 William had retired to Christchurch.

At this point it was bought by Henry Hammans, a complete change of career for him as he had long been an Oxford bookseller.

Born in Garford Berkshire, he married Maria Hayes at Brighton in 1860, who died in 1864, and then married Ellen Melville in 1869 at Matlock.

By 1871, the couple were living at Gardeners Cottages, near Waterloo House in Upper Clatford.

It seems a humble address for Hammans who was now a brewer, employing 11 men.

However, over the years he was to progress to Waterloo House itself, the former home of ironmaster Robert Tasker, renaming it the more gentrified-sounding Clatford Lodge.

Hammans joined the borough council and was mayor three times in quick succession in 1877, 1881 and 1883.

When he died in 1901, his son Henry Christopher Hammans succeeded to both the brewery and the council, serving a single term as mayor in 1905.

But the time of family breweries was ending; like others in Andover, Hammans’ could not compete with the larger companies and quite simply there was no one left in the next generation to carry on.

In 1919 Strong and Co of Romsey bought the brewery, mainly for the licensed houses that it owned.

There were at least seven and these included The Spotted Dog in nearby East street and the Wellington in Winchester Street.

Strong’s soon sold the brewery buildings off and they became a chicken hatchery during the 1920s, before being taken over by the Andover Family Laundry, who remained there until closure and demolition around 1968.