http://www.eastmeonhistory.net
This small, informal society was founded in 2010 and today offers a full programme of events, talks and visits; it also conducts research into the history of East Meon, including House Histories in 2011/12 and Farming the Valley, which started in 2016. Our aim is to remain small and informal, focussing on history local to East Meon.
Between September and May each year the Group organises talks on topics relating to local history and visits to sites of historical interest. Talks usually take place in All Saints Church Hall at 7.30pm on the third Thursday of the month. Some are given by guest speakers, usually historians, and others by members of East Meon History Group who have been researching a local history topic.
Members of the Group attend free of charge, non-members are welcome but are invited to pay £5.00 at the door. Advance notice is advisable, since the Hall has limited capacity.
Please go to our website or contact ian.c.wesley@gmail.com if you want any further information.
A RIVER RUNS THROUGH IT – THE COURSE OF THE MEON
Do you know the history of the river that defines our village?
Until the 1950s, the river caused many floods in the centre of the village: in times of heavy rain, the water came barrelling down the High Street, hit the wall at The Cross and backed up, flooding Church and High Streets. A culvert was then dug parallel to Workhouse Lane, which relieved the river in full spate (though some flooding continued for another fifty years.)
Did nature design a river which ran parallel to the High Street, then turned at right angle down The Cross, then sharp left where the stream divides Cross Keys and Vicarage Lodge? It seems improbable.16th and 17th century maps do not show the route of the river, but there was a large pond at the Court House, the original curia of the Bishops of Winchester, the headquarters of farming for the 9,000 acres which comprised the Hundred of East Meon. A discrepancy between the height of the gardens of Glenthorne House and the Court House suggest there might have been a stream flowing into that pond, which would logically have continued parallel to The Hyde to join the present course at the southern end of The Cross.
There might have been another stream along the High Street and Workhouse Lane, since a large farmhouse at The Tudor House would probably also have had a pond. The first map to indicate a river flowing through East Meon was that of Thomas Milne in 1790, and it shows only the northern route, through Court Farm. The first really accurate map, however, was drawn in 1851 and it shows the present route, along the High Street and then turning at The Cross, with no sign of the northern stream. We have no way of knowing what might have happened in the 80 intervening years, but might the engineers of the early 19th century have drained the swampy land on which houses are now built along the West Meon road and re-routed the flow along its present route, with disastrous consequences a century later? You can see the evidence, such as it is, at http://www.eastmeonhistory.net/the-course-of-the-river-meon/
Michael Blaksted