 Certainly, beer was being retailed in Andover by 1317, as an entry in the Guild Rolls for that year records a decree that beer should be sold in the town for the price of 1½ d. per barrel.Formerly an alien priory under the control of the Abbey of Saint-Florent de Saumur in Anjou, France—to whom it had been gifted by William I in 1087 and William II in 1100—Andover Priory and its possessions were appropriated by royal charter to St. Mary's College, Winchester (now known as Winchester College) on 10 December 1414.Andover was a well-established market town, central to the thriving local wool and cloth industry, and situated at the crossing of several important trade routes as well as the Harrow Way, a prehistoric trackway still in use during the medieval period as a pilgrims' route to London and Canterbury.