My Time NearAndover

High Street c1960
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WE were married in July 1966. As I was stationed at Middle Wallop, after our honeymoon in London we caught the train to Andover and stayed for 2 nights at the White Hart (is that the name? Opposite the old bus station near the canal and post office). We hired a flat on Weyhill Road and decided we must have a washing machine, so with great reluctance bought one on HP - sinful in those days) at a place opposite Squire's electrical shop near the post office.
After a while we moved to rotten old Married Quarters in Middle Wallop and had our first child, Julian there. (He was born at the War Memorial Hospital in Andover - I would go there each evening and stop for a pint at The Railway Tavern near the station.)
Most Saturdays we would do our shopping in Andover - a right fuss that was too as going back we had multiple shopping bags, a baby and a fold-up pram to take on the bus! Luckily people were more patient in those days than they are today. We would buy cheaply off the market and perhaps have tea in an a rickety upstairs cafe at the lower end of the market where it met the High Street.
Opening a bank account in those days required the written authorisation of my Commanding Officer and we were treated like some lower form of life by the bank manager (National Westminster Bank toward the bottomof Market Street). God knows what would have happened had we asked for a loan!

We were always hard up but those were happy days.

There used to be a cinema on the London Road and opposite that there was a Working Man's Club where we sometimes went to dances and I attended Labour Party meetings.

Left that part of the world in 1969 when I left the army.