Photo credit: Ron Morris, 1950s, AV939/14

Andover in time

Leave your legacy and share memories of Andover

With two of Andover’s key town centre regeneration projects underway, including the creation of a new theatre and a new riverside park along Western Avenue, we’re on the lookout for stories and archive materials of the areas to be rejuvenated and would love you to help us by sharing your memories.

Working in partnership with the Wessex Film and Sound Archives (WSFA), we want to capture snapshots of Andover over time and document the town’s journey as we enter the next phase of its development.

Andover is steeped in history, first being mentioned in 950 when King Edred is recorded as having built a royal hunting lodge there. Over time the town has continued to evolve and is now on the cusp of an exciting new era, as set out in the Andover Masterplan.  Through significant redevelopment, Andover will become a place that draws people in to live, relax and shop, and where businesses can thrive and grow. 

We’re looking for materials in the form of photographs, film footage or audio clips as well as stories from the people who have lived here, worked here and visited the town. Remember, every moment captured is a piece of history, so it doesn’t matter if you share something from 50 years ago, five years ago or five minutes ago it is still a part of our history and we want to document as much as we can from across the decades.

Any relevant materials supplied will be stored in the Hampshire Archives and you will be credited if your archive material is used publicly.

If you have any archive materials or tales that you would be interested in sharing with us, please email thinkandovertowncentre@testvalley.gov.uk.

WSFA is currently running another year-long project to collect archive materials which will be used to document housing estates across Andover. You can read more details about their project below and online here: Andover: An overspill story Andover: An Overspill Story (wordpress.com)

Andover: An Overspill Story

Andover: An Overspill Story is a 12-month community project created with the support of the British Film Institute, awarding funds from the National Lottery to help Wessex Film and Sound Archive (WFSA) develop and diversify their collections.

The focus of this project is on Andover because, to date, its residents have not deposited much audio-visual material to WFSA.

To support the project, we would like Andover residents to add a slice of their life to the archive so that the history of Andover and the diversity of its residents are captured within our collection.

We are especially hoping that those living in the larger, newer estates and the originally called ‘London overspill’ estates add something to the archive. This is because, despite being over 50 years old, these estates are so far not represented in screen heritage collections.

We want anyone and everyone who has ever lived, worked, or has memories of Andover to share their memories, film, and photographs with us!

We want people to capture what’s important to them and add it to the archive so that more individuals and communities will see themselves represented in our collections. Your experience could be contributed as a video, sound recording, photographs, handwritten notes, or something else.

Looking ahead, we hope that the legacy of this project will make archive depositing an on-going activity so adding to WFSA becomes a feature of more people’s routine.

If you would be interested in supporting the project, please contact Lydia at the archive: archives.enquiries@hants.gov.uk