 In importance, it was surpassed in Hampshire only by Winchester and Southampton, and its status ranked equally with Basingstoke and Portsmouth.Renting out an inn—which in the late medieval period served not only as a hostel for travellers but also as an important local hub for trading products such as fish, beer, wine and cloth—at such a location would have been a profitable investment for the college.Thomas Kirby, the bursar of Winchester College and Hampshire secretary of the Society of Antiquaries, wrote in his "Annals of Winchester College from its Foundation in 1382 to the Present Time" (1892) that the site upon which The Angel Inn was built had previously been occupied by the College Inn, which was completely destroyed during the Great Fire of Andover in 1434.