[3][7][8] The west wing is no longer extant, while the surviving section of the south wing—which was divided from the inn for other commercial uses in the 18th century—is now also Grade II* listed (under the designation "89, 91 & 93 High Street, Andover.

[17] Local tradition claims that the site has housed an inn or tavern since at least 1174, and that a part of the fabric of the current building dates from this time.

[18][19] Although there is no documentary evidence for a 12th-century inn, stone "robbed" from the nearby 12th century priory has been found re-used in a Tudor dwelling on the High Street.

[26][25] 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.

"[31][c] The economic impact was such that in 1435 and 1437, Andover was exempted from the "fifteenth and tenth" annual taxation, and paid only half of the tax in 1439 and 1444, reductions which suggest "that there was a justifiable grievance and not just the common complaints of urban poverty.

"[31] The loss of rent and tithes from its destroyed properties—and the opportunity to purchase now vacant land on which to build—led St. Mary's College to invest heavily in the redevelopment of the affected part of the town.

[2] The east wing presented the main façade and contained a gated archway, 12 feet (3.7 m) wide, giving access to the yard from the High Street.

"[22] She was one of 28 inn- and tavern-keepers who fell foul of Andover's official Ale Taster that year, as he carried out his duty—laid down in the town's Great Charter of 1599—to visit all licensed houses and taste the beer to ensure that it was "fit and meet for men's bodyes" and being sold at the correct price.

[22][g] Between 1787–1800, one of the wings of the inn was leased by Henry Thornton (1750–1818), a Georgian actor and theatre promoter, as a playhouse, staging up to 60 performances per year.

"[58] Paul Ranger describes these makeshift theatres as "comfortless", with boxes constructed from bales of hay and wagons "slung from the rafters" as galleries.

[57] Thornton's permanent company was made up of a core of family members—his wife and her brother and sisters, his two sons and two sons-in-law—but was also regularly augmented by London-based performers employed for short seasons ranging from a few days to several months.

"[61] James Winston, in his The Theatric Tourist (1805), relates how, just before one performance at Andover, Thornton noticed someone in the audience holding a copy of that evening's play.

Winston writes: "With such a potent evidence of their incorrectness, it was impossible to proceed..." Thornton announced that the performance was cancelled, owing to the troupe's prompt-book "having been unfortunately mislaid."