A TIMELINE OF THE MEON VALLEY
By Tim Lambert
6th Century AD A group of Jutes called the Meon Warra settle in the Meon Valley
1086The Domesday Book records small villages in the Meon Valley. Wickham has 2 watermills. East Meon has 6 watermills.
c 1210 St John's House is built in Warnford
1232 Titchfield Abbey is founded
1269 The people of Wickham are allowed to have weekly markets
1447 Titchfield is allowed annual fairs
1537 Titchfield Abbey is dissolved
c 1540 Wickham is described as a pretty townlet
1552 The king calls Titchfield a handsome town
1611 The Earl of Southampton builds a sea wall over the mouth of the Meon.
1644 During the Civil War skirmishes take place at West Meon
1719 Many houses in Meonstoke are burned in a fire
1790 There is a smallpox epidemic in Meonstoke
1792 Wickham Bridge is built
A view of Wickham
1801 Titchfield has a population of almost 3,000. Wickham has a population of 901. Soberton has a population of 672. West Meon has a population of 536. Warnford has a population of 272. Corhampton has a population of 120.
1820 Chesapeake Mill is built in Wickham
1837 A workhouse is built at Droxford
1842 A Church of England School is built in Meonstoke
1843 West Meon Church is rebuilt in flint
1851 A Church of England School is built at Soberton
1858 A police station is built at Droxford
1865 Titchfield gains gas light
1881 Soberton Church Tower is restored
1894 Wickham and Titchfield are given parish councils. So is Meonstoke.
1903 A railway opens from Fareham to Droxford
1924 Leydene House is built in East Meon
1931 Wickham gains a gas supply
1955 Meonstoke gains a piped water supply
1955 The railway to Droxford closes to passengers
1969 Wickham Primary School opens
1975 East Meon Village Hall is opened
1979 West Meon is flooded
1984 Wickham Vineyard opens
2000 Soberton Millennium Walk is laid out