Village History
Local historian Freddie Standfield has investigated the history of East Meon
There are bronze age burial barrows within the parish boundaries of East Meon which date back to 2,000 BC;
there is an iron age fort,just outside the parish boundaries, on Old Winchester Hill constructed 500 years before the Romans invaded Britain, and
there is evidence of Roman occupation in and around the village.
East Meon itself may have started life somewhere between 400 and 600 AD. Then it was part of a Royal Manor belonging first
to King Alfred the Great. The Domesday Survey of 1086 shows that the Manor then belonged to William the
Conqueror; it records six mills and land for 64 ploughs - it must have had a substantial population.
The lovely church was built after the Norman Conquest, and dates between 1075 and 1150, resembling Winchester
Cathedral in style - and like the Cathedral, it contains a black marble baptismal font created at Tournai in
what is now Belgium in the XIth Century.
Near the church is the Court House with a mediaeval hall dating from the late 14th century; at this time, and for many centuries,
East Meon belonged to successive Bishops of Winchester, and the Court House was its administrative centre and home to a
number of monks who played host to the Bishop when he visited East Meon; they also recorded all
memorial imports and exports.
East Meon played its part in the English Civil War in the 1640's; the Roundheads camped near the village before
the Battle of Cheriton in 1644 (and stole the lead lining from the font to make bullets),
this turned out to be the turning point in the War.
During the Second World War, Hitler's Luftwaffe dropped 38 high explosive bombs and an estimated 3,500 incendiary
bombs in the Parish - the only casualty was a pig!
In 1986, the 900th anniversary of the "Domesday Book" East Meon was chosen as "The Domesday Village", with a model
in Winchester's Great Hall depicting the village as it was then - the model can still be seen alongside the famous tapestry
at Bayeux in Normandy.