Back Through the Pages: Houses faced water famine in 1926

THUNDERSTORM

On Saturday morning last, a terrific thunderstorm passed over Andover, causing considerable alarm, although there was no actual damage done to any property by the lightning.

At about 3 o'clock am, a storm of rain set in, which contributed with unabated violence for about an hour, penetrating the roofs of almost all the houses, and flooding the High Street.

Towards 4 o'clock, the most brilliant flashes of lightning, succeeded by instantaneous peals of thunder showed that the storm was passing directly over the town.

Fortunately, no house in the town was struck, and the worst effects of the storm were the flooding of the ground floors of several houses, of which the Star and Garter hotel suffered most.

The quantity of water which entered the lower rooms was so great that it was some hours before they could be freed from it.

ONE HUNDRED AND TWENTY-FIVE YEARS AGO – FRIDAY 18 OCTOBER 1901

DRUNK AND DISORDERLY

Thomas Bowes, an old soldier and stranger to the town, was brought up in custody on a charge of being drunk and disorderly in the Weyhill Road on the 11th October.

Prisoner admitted having a drop to drink, but said he remembered nothing of what took place, and so a plea of not guilty was entered.

PC Miles said that at 9 o’clock on Friday evening he was on duty in the Weyhill Road, when he saw the prisoner who was drunk, shouting and swearing at the top of his voice.

PS Gregory said his conduct had been very bad on this evening, and a police constable had to eject him from the Masons’ Arms for being drunk there and making use of foul language to the waitress.

He was then advised to leave the town.

The Mayor asked whether the prisoner was leaving the town when the constable met him in the Weyhill Road?

PC Miles replied that the prisoner was accosting almost everybody he met and speaking to them.

Prisoner now remarked that surely a person had a right to speak to people if he liked.

He admitted having a drop of whiskey with some friends, but he denied the use of bad language.

He said he was on his way to Salisbury Plain in search of work.

The charge as to his being disorderly in the public house was untrue; he had been put upon because he was a stranger.

PS Gregory said PC Adams could corroborate as to the prisoner’s disgraceful conduct.

Prisoner said that if the Bench would let him off he would leave the town at once but the Mayor said: “You will be sent to Winchester gaol for seven days’ hard labour.”

ONE HUNDRED YEARS AGO – FRIDAY 15 OCTOBER 1926

ON WHOSE ACCOUNT?

A correspondent writing on the ‘water famine’ in Andover on Monday, asks who will have to answer for all the bad things said and thought when there was no liquid available from the taps, especially by the ladies who had all the copper fires prepared and the week’s washing just ready to get away with, and a fine day for drying.

There were some opinions expressed, and there were many amusing sights with people running about with all kinds of receptacles begging a kettleful for breakfast use from those who were lucky enough to possess a cistern.

We hear of one lady who had a brain wave.

She lived near the Recreation Ground and suddenly thought of the little fountain which has proved such a boon to the kiddies during the summer.

She hurried there with a big jug, but when she got there that also was bare, and so the poor lady had none.

SEVENTY-FIVE YEARS AGO – FRIDAY 19 OCTOBER 1951

FOUR WHO REMEMBER DOCTOR SAY: BUST IS GOOD LIKENESS

On Tuesday, there was unveiled at St Mary Bourne a bust of Dr Joseph Stevens, who wrote “The Parochial History of St Mary Bourne”, and was the first physician for 35 years before retiring to Reading to become the first curator of the museum there.

Six years before his death in 1899, a bust of the doctor was presented to the Reading museum where it still stands.

A replica of this bust was given to the doctor and after his death it passed to his grand-children, Mr T Cane and Miss Cane of Woodley, near Reading.

After many years, Mr and Miss Cane decided to present this bust to the village their relative knew so well and on Tuesday they came with their brother, Mr J Cane, to make the presentation.

Mrs Kathleen Innes, introducing Mr Cane, said that it was appropriate that the bust should be presented in the school in which the doctor had always taken a great interest; later it was hoped it would be moved to the new Village Centre.

Mr T Cane mentioned that as a boy he could remember being taken by his mother to Reading museum where he saw Dr Stevens of whom both he and his mother had always been very proud.

Among those present at the ceremony were four residents of St Mary Bourne, Mr and Mrs Pyle, Mr W Benham and Mr A Goodyear, who can still remember Dr Stevens as the village doctor (he left in 1879); they remarked on the good likeness to the doctor achieved by the sculptor.

Many stories of the doctor were called to mind by these old inhabitants and Mr Cane said he hoped to come to St Mary Bourne again in the spring.

FORTY-SEVEN YEARS AGO – FRIDAY 19 OCTOBER 1979

NO SCHOOL FOR CHARLTON, ONLY PROMISES

Mr K Eaton, chairman of Charlton Village Association writes:

Through your columns, the Charlton Village Association would like to express its grateful thanks to Lady Cuthbert and Cllr G Porter for standing up to the might of Hampshire County Council over the new school for Charlton.

Over the past 10 years many promises have been given regarding development in and around the village of Charlton by HCC.

“The carrot,” as Lady Cuthbert quite rightly put it, has been the provision of a new school.

In November 1972, the county planning officer wrote to the village association stating: “Two hundred and fifty new dwellings are needed to support the new school and community rooms.”

The growth of the village since that date has been astronomical and by these figures the village should have had a school years ago.

County education officer, Mr J H Adlam, said in July 1977 that: “It normally takes three years to programme, design, build and open a new school.”

In August of this year, a county education officer at Winchester said that a school at Charlton was a basic need and a school could be justified in its own right.

Has the basic need evaporated?

Have the conditions at East Street school in Andover been dramatically improved in the last two months?

The answer is emphatically “No.”

But we do know what they will be in three years’ time — the best construction time the county can quote if they put the wheels in motion now — or are we to be given yet more promises?