From the early 1950s onwards, there were murmurings about various plans for much-needed development of the town.
Those vaguely envisioned were not the grand Town Development project that eventually came to fruition but smaller-scale initiatives to improve the town’s attractiveness to industry and commerce.
The borough council was not really in favour of any major expansion and voted against it, despite there being general consent that the status quo was unacceptable.
Many people pointed to the number of shopkeepers on the council and said it was they who did not want any competition.
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Another major stumbling block was the town station level crossing in Bridge Street.
It was frustrating to both residents and visitors that the main road from London to the West Country running through the town was continually blocked by the need to allow trains to cross that thoroughfare; the much-maligned gates stopped the traffic, and in summer this frequently caused a queue of vehicles that stretched a mile or more either side of the crossing.
Private vehicle ownership was plainly increasing fast and the problem could only get worse.
In early 1960, the favoured solution was to build a link road or flyover that began at the bottom of Western Road, to go up over the Odeon cinema (then at the entrance to Junction Road), towards the Town Mill, across the bottom of Chantry Street to Marlborough Street, then Shepherds Spring, and so to join the main Newbury Road in a huge arc across the main town.
Lord Porchester, (later Lord Carnarvon), declared in a meeting of Hampshire County Council (HCC), that nothing could happen in the way of development without the road.
Today, the concept seems a crazily expensive idea and thankfully the road never got built as when Lord Beeching closed the Andover-Southampton line, the railway crossing gates disappeared and the traffic problem automatically eased.
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By April 1960, a new development plan was being mentioned after preliminary talks with HCC and the London County Council (LCC).
The news soon broke that Andover’s population was to double in 10 years with people currently living in London, being brought to Andover where they would live and work in new development to accommodate them.
Everything was as yet to be discussed in full council, and a week later it voted overwhelmingly to take the plan further.
Not everyone was in favour but there was a general acceptance that something had to happen.
Indeed, Andover in 1960 had to some extent hit a brick wall.
Although there was little unemployment, there was evidence that young people were leaving the town because the job prospects were limited.
High street office and shop-work was available, as well as there being work for home furnishers, tradesmen and the building trade but there was a shortage of industry, factories and manufacturing and this was something the town development scheme would address.
As well as more work opportunities, the increase in population would justify new infrastructure to benefit all.
Definite plans were hazy but people wanted to know what was happening and so the council decided to hold a public meeting in the Guildhall on 3 October where people could ask questions about the proposals.
Public meetings on contentious issues in Andover had a chequered history and many must have wondered what would happen this time.
The meeting took place on both floors with microphones relaying to the lower floor what was being said upstairs.
In all, 400 people attended and it was a relatively peaceful occasion by previous standards, with representatives from all three councils having their say, chaired by the mayor, Cllr Batchelor.
There was talk of an imminent danger that the town’s supposed small size was likely to be a disadvantage in future as far as political status and future funding were concerned, something that large-scale development would reverse.
The county council would provide new schools and the London families would generally be people who were upwardly-mobile with one or two children.
Their wages would be spent in the town and their contribution to the rates would be all to the good.
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New public amenities would be provided in accordance with the increased population and a new shopping area would benefit everyone.
Finally, new roads would literally oil the wheels of traffic flow.
Generally, the audience was positive and there was no outright or orchestrated opposition.
However, Mr C Kilbourn, a grammar school master of Eastfield Road, came out as a ‘dissident’.
In a letter to the Advertiser, he called the meeting a collection of pious hopes and vague assurances and suggested the borough council may know far more than has been revealed.
He wanted a referendum on the basis that none of the present council was elected to carry out such a colossal scheme and its approval should be tested by a public vote.
By holding a public meeting the council may have felt that a virtual referendum had already been held.
Borough councils had more power in those days and the general agreement to the scheme from the audience was enough to reassure any doubtful councillors who wanted to slow the process down.
The mayor, on being asked whether the scheme could yet be halted, had replied: "No, not now."
The exploratory stage was over. A former Hampshire scheme to build a complete new town at Hook instead was abandoned and replaced by the planned expansion of Andover, Basingstoke and Tadley.
As a formal step, the chairman of LCC’s New and Expanding Towns Committee now advised the LCC to accept the new scheme.
Projected to take 12 years, at a cost of £50 million and the eventual accommodation of 62,000 people among the three towns, the plan was all set to go.
The next few months were spent, agreeing, negotiating and organising what was to happen and on 17 May 1961, the Town Development Agreement was signed by the Andover mayor, Cllr Percy Batchelor, right at the end of his mayoralty.
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Chairman of Hampshire County Council, Alderman Alan Lubbock, sits beside the mayor, while watching on is town clerk John Whatley who would be closely involved with carrying out the administrative and legal work that was to come.
Cllr Batchelor summed up what the occasion meant for him: "Ever since I came to Andover in 1952 I have been pressing for Andover to expand.
"It all started with letters I wrote to the Advertiser.
"Then I was elected to the council, and I still continued to put forward the need for Andover to develop.
"Now it has come about in my year of office."
He was also at pains to assure those who may have doubted it: "At no time has the council been pressed by the LCC or Hampshire County Council to do anything we do not want to do.
"We have worked in harmony with the other two authorities and will continue to do so."
Up till now there had been some degree of vagueness about exactly what areas would be affected by development but now the plan needed to begin in earnest.
On 11 August, the new Town Map was published, showing the central area of development.
For the first time, everyone could see exactly which properties would be demolished completely and what others would be affected.
To many, it came as a shock; the change would literally be brutal with so many well-loved buildings facing the bulldozers.
Whole streets would be chopped up and destroyed while residents who were perfectly happy living in their current homes, looking forward to more shops, an indoor swimming pool, a theatre, a sports centre and much else besides, realised that they were going to be moved out themselves so as to enable their comfortable houses to be flattened. And that’s when the trouble started.
If you are interested in local history, why not join Andover History and Archaeology Society? Details can be found at andoverlocalhistoryarchaeology.uk.
