The River Meon () is a

chalk stream Chalk streams are rivers that rise from springs in landscapes with chalk bedrock. Since chalk is permeable, water percolates easily through the ground to the water table and chalk streams therefore receive little surface runoff. As a result, th ...

Hampshire Hampshire (, ; abbreviated to Hants) is a ceremonial county, ceremonial and non-metropolitan county, non-metropolitan counties of England, county in western South East England on the coast of the English Channel. Home to two major English citi ...

in the south of England. It rises at

East Meon East Meon is a village and civil parish in the East Hampshire district of Hampshire, England. It is west of Petersfield. The village is located in the Meon Valley approximately north of Portsmouth and southwest of London, on the headwater ...

then flows in a generally southerly direction to empty into the

Solent The Solent ( ) is a strait between the Isle of Wight and Great Britain. It is about long and varies in width between , although the Hurst Spit which projects into the Solent narrows the sea crossing between Hurst Castle and Colwell Bay to ...

Hill Head Hill Head is a residential area and village on the coast of the Solent. It is located south of Stubbington, west of Lee-on-the-Solent and south east of Titchfield, in the borough of Fareham, Hampshire. Hill Head is in the Gosport parliament ...

near

Stubbington Stubbington is a village which is located between Southampton and Portsmouth, in the county of Hampshire on the south coast of England. It is within the borough of Fareham. History Both Stubbington and neighbouring Crofton were mentioned in ...

.Hampshire County Council (2006).
Activities at Titchfield Haven - River Study
''. Retrieved March 19, 2005. Above Wickham, the river runs through the

South Downs National Park The South Downs National Park is England's newest national park, designated on 31 March 2010. The park, covering an area of in southern England, stretches for from Winchester in the west to Eastbourne in the east through the counties of Hamp ...

Course

The River Meon rises one mile (1.6 km) south of the village centre of East Meon. It flows due north, then northwest to

West Meon West Meon is a village and civil parish in Hampshire, England, with a population of 749 people at the 2011 census. Geography It is north-west of East Meon, on the headwaters of the River Meon. Its closest town is Petersfield which is to the e ...

, and southwest to

Warnford Warnford is a village and civil parish in the City of Winchester district of Hampshire, England. The parish covers 1283 hectares (3170 acres). The population in 2019 was estimated at 220. The village lies on the A32 in the upper valley of the ...

followed by its characteristic, quite straight, south-southwest course, with many tiny wobbles in short stretches. The river descends through the villages of Exton,

Corhampton Corhampton is a village in Hampshire, England. It lies on the western bank of the River Meon. It forms a civil parish with Meonstoke which adjoins it on the eastern bank. It is in the civil parish of Corhampton and Meonstoke. Archaeology Bronz ...

and

Meonstoke Meonstoke is a village in Hampshire, England, in the Meon Valley where it cuts through the Middle Chalk of the South Downs. Old Winchester Hill is at the edge of the parish to the east. It sits on the eastern bank of the River Meon. On the no ...

Droxford Droxford ( Drokensford) is a village in Hampshire, England. Geography The village is clustered with slight ribbon development along its main, north–south, undulating road. It is entirely on the lower half of the western slopes of the Meon v ...

, Wickham, and

Titchfield Titchfield is a village in southern Hampshire, by the River Meon. The village has a history stretching back to the 6th century. During the medieval period, the village operated a small port and market. Near to the village are the ruins of Titch ...

. The river outflows over of estuary through the marshes of the

Titchfield Haven National Nature Reserve Titchfield Haven is a biological Site of Special Scientific Interest north-west of Gosport in Hampshire. Most of it is a local nature reserve and a national nature reserve. It is part of Solent and Southampton Water Ramsar site and Special ...

to enter the

through a small harbour at

.Ordnance Survey (2005). ''OS Explorer Map 119 - Meon Valley, Portsmouth, Gosport & Fareham''. . Overall the valley forms the shape of that of a shepherd's crook.

Navigation

Above the estuary has never been navigable. Titchfield Haven, on the Solent coast was a minor harbour. In the 17th century, the

Earl of Southampton Earl of Southampton was a title that was created three times in the Peerage of England. The first creation came in 1537 in favour of the courtier William FitzWilliam. He was childless and the title became extinct on his death in 1542. The se ...

caused a sluice (not a

canal Canals or artificial waterways are waterways or engineered channels built for drainage management (e.g. flood control and irrigation) or for conveyancing water transport vehicles (e.g. water taxi). They carry free, calm surface flow un ...

) to be built (

Titchfield Canal The so called Titchfield Canal was used to drain marshland in the lower Meon valley and is a two-mile watercourse between the village of Titchfield, Hampshire, and the coast at Titchfield Haven adjacent to the modern nature reserve. Lying abo ...

) to drain the marshes. The reinstated wetlands form the

Water quality

The Environment Agency measures the water quality of the river systems in England. Each is given an overall ecological status, which may be one of five levels: high, good, moderate, poor and bad. There are several components that are used to determine this, including biological status, which looks at the quantity and varieties of

invertebrate Invertebrates are a paraphyletic group of animals that neither possess nor develop a vertebral column (commonly known as a ''backbone'' or ''spine''), derived from the notochord. This is a grouping including all animals apart from the chordate ...

angiosperm Flowering plants are plants that bear flowers and fruits, and form the clade Angiospermae (), commonly called angiosperms. The term "angiosperm" is derived from the Greek words ('container, vessel') and ('seed'), and refers to those plants th ...

s and fish. Chemical status, which compares the concentrations of various chemicals against known safe concentrations, is rated good or fail. Text was copied from this source, which is available under a
Open Government Licence v3.0
© Crown copyright. Water quality of the River Meon in 2019:

Gallery

References

External links

Ordnance Survey National Grid The Ordnance Survey National Grid reference system (OSGB) (also known as British National Grid (BNG)) is a system of geographic grid references used in Great Britain, distinct from latitude and longitude. The Ordnance Survey (OS) devised the ...

: (source), (mouth)
Current flood status
for River Meon, from the

Environment Agency The Environment Agency (EA) is a non-departmental public body, established in 1996 and sponsored by the United Kingdom government's Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, with responsibilities relating to the protection and enha ...