By the Rev. C. Collier, M.A., F.S.A. 308 



Common Acre is now utterly useless ; the dusting of carpets is the 

 only use to which valuable building land is now put — land which 

 might be exchanged for a small park, or, at all events, for a cricket 

 ground for the people. I may state here that in one of the council 

 books we read that the Common Acre was let to Robert Maynsak 

 and Thomas Hode for eleven years, at the annual rent of 20^. 



By some means or other the Corporation have become possessed 

 of an ancient churchwardens' book for the year 1471; indeed 

 one cannot but express surprise how many of the books and deeds 

 which should be in the Church chest are amongst the archives of the 

 Corporation. And we ought not to grieve over this, for while the 

 early registers are literally dropping to pieces, the archives of the Cor- 

 poration have been most carefully preserved and catalogued — with one 

 exception, however — for a great number of Latin deeds were tied up 

 in a bundle, and labelled " Miscellaneous Papers." But to return to 

 the churchwardens' book. We learn from it that the Church had 

 a steeple and bells. At Easter were the usual services in connexion 

 with that feast — the Easter sepulchre, the watchers and the torches. 

 The town could then supply ironmongers, for Richard Jumper and 

 John Roche found the iron and nails necessary for the repair of 

 the choir and the bell furniture. Richard Peynton and Robert 

 Carpenter were carpenters. William Clifford was a bookbinder and 

 a repairer of surplices. John Helier was a bell-hanger. William 

 Gunter was a writer. William Plomer and William Sadler repaired 

 the bellows (wind-bag it is in the book) of the organ. Richard Curtis 

 and Philip Morant's wife were brewers. Agnes was the laundress for 

 the Church ; and here, speaking of laundresses, I may remark that the 

 people of Andover seem to have made great provision for clothes wash- 

 ing. There are numerous entries in the Corporation books of this kind, 

 viz.. Memorandum. — "It was granted that Wm. Broughton should 

 have a washing-house upon the king's stream for a certain term, at a 

 yearly rent of 24*. %d. We learn, too, from the churchwardens' book 

 that the price of oil for the Church was &\d. per gallon. The board of 

 a man and his horse was 4fi?. a day. There was a wedding door to the 

 Church, and Poche's man was paid \d. for repairing it. The pay of 

 a carpenter was bd. a day. The Duke and Duchess of Clarence, the 



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