East Meon is one of the most attractive villages in the south of England, with the river flowing along the high street and the church seemingly built into the hillside. It sits at the foot of the Downs, with Butser to the south-east and the mighty Iron Age hill fort of Old Winchester Hill, now a nature reserve, to the south-west. There were Roman Villas nearby, and in Saxon times the manor was the property of Alfred the Great. But East Meon as we know it today is inextricably associated with the history of Winchester Cathedral.

William the Conqueror quickly installed his friend, Walkelin as Bishop in place of the Saxon, Stigand, and he immediately began to rebuild the cathedral in the solid, heavy Norman style that can still be seen in the transepts. At the same time he rebuilt the existing church at East Meon and crowning it with a mighty tower.

Another Bishop of Winchester during the Norman period was Henry of Blois, the brother of King Stephen. As Chancellor of England he was one of the most important men in the realm, and he was responsible for building the Bishop’s Palace at Bishop’s Waltham, the Hospital of St. Cross and Farnham Castle. He also had a passion for beautifying his churches, and East Meon’s greatest treasure dates from his time. Four Hampshire churches possess fonts made of black marble, brought from Tournai in Belgium in about 1150, and other than the one in the Cathedral, East Meon’s is by far the best. It is vividly carved with the story of Adam and Eve, both sporting magnificent fig-leaves.

After the Metropolitan Sees of Canterbury and York, Winchester ranked first among all the English bishoprics, and men like William of Wykeham, Bishop of Winchester between 1367 and 1404, held immense power and influence. He was twice Lord Chancellor, and founded both Winchester College and New College, Oxford, as well as overseeing the rebuilding the nave of the Cathedral.

The Bishops of Winchester had from time immemorial held the manor of East Meon, and it was during Wykeham’s time that the Court House was built, just south east of the church. It became an administrative centre and home to a number of monks who played host to the Bishop when he held his manorial court there. The building remains just across the road from the church to this day, although by the beginning of the 19th century it housed farm workers and the great hall was a cow byre. The whole building was restored in 1927.

The last Bishop of Winchester to have a great impact on East Meon was Thomas Langton at the end of the fifteenth century, who, with Prior Hinton, in a rare example of co-operation between one of the bishops and the prior, oversaw the remodelling of the east end of the church. Their Coats of Arms, carved in stone, can be seen to this day in the east wall. Langton was elected Archbishop of Canterbury in 1501, but died before he could be enthroned.

The village was later involved in the Civil War, Cromwell’s army camping close by immediately before the decisive battle of Cheriton

In 1986. the 900th anniversary of the Domesday Book, East Meon was chosen as the Domesday Village, with a model in the Great Hall of Winchester Castle showing the village as it then was. The model is now in the Musée de la Tapisserie in Bayeux, alongside the tapestry that records how England became part of Normandy, whose Duke William was indirectly responsible for the East Meon we know today.


Tom Muckley, August 2006

This article was originally published by the Petersfield Post

tommuckley.co.uk