environment a g e n c y THE RIVER MEON R A TIO N A L ► .! iNrOKMATlON [ : SOUTHED REGION rhatsv/orth Road. J * oulldboura. BNn 1LD W o r t h in g . V* ■ sxw NRA National Rivers Authority Southern Region Guardians of the underlying chalk. not many sites with a fall in It has been suggested that GEOLOGY AND water level, where gauging THE the Upper Meon upstream of weirs could be installed with­ Warnford was originally a HYDROLOGY out interfering with hatches It is the very permeable chalk tributary of the River Itchen and levels that are in private that gives the river its special RIVER and was captured by the Meon ownership. However, the character. Almost all of the rain­ which had the advantage of a National Rivers Authority fall that falls on the chalk catch­ more direct route to the sea. measures flow at a continuous ment either evaporates or MEON gauging weir at Mislingford on The Lower Meon and the soaks into the ground. In the the Chalk to Tertiary boundary' River Itchen were once tribu­ summer the evaporation always where flow' records go back to taries of the ancient Solent exceeds rainfall, but in winter 1957. The catchment area River which flowed eastwards the rain percolates to the water above this weir is 32.8 sq km from the River Frome to join table and flows underground COURSE AND and the average flow recorded the sea somewhere near Little- to springs in the river valley, a is 1.024 cu m/sec. There are HISTORY hampton in times when the process that takes a very long also more limited records of The River Meon is one of the Isle of Wight was part of the time. The result is that the flow in the Titchfield, Wam­ famous Hampshire chalk mainland. The Solent River river flow shows a slow sea­ ford and West Meon area. streams. It rises as a spring system was dismembered sonal variation peaking in the 2 km to the South of East during the Pleistocene Period spring when the groundwater The Thomas Lord, West Meon Meon, at the foot of Ramsdean when the sea made inroads table is at its highest and re­ Down and Butser Hill. After into the catchment to the East ceding to a minimum in the flowing north-west through and the West of the Isle of late autumn. The maximum West Meon towards Warnford, Wight. flow in any year is typically the river turns South towards Historically the steep grad­ only four to five times the the sea, passing through several ients of the middle and upper minimum, unlike rivers of Kent villages including Droxford reaches enabled the river’s and Sussex where the ratio is and Soberton. Although these water power to be harnessed often 1 to 100 or more. Natural headwaters are on the perm­ for iron working, wool proces­ growth and management of the eable chalk, once South of sing, paper making, tanning, weed in the river as the flow Mislingford the river begins to flour and grist milling as well as falls away over the summer flow over less permeable sands, for the generation of electricity. months keeps the river always silts and clays of Tertiary age The Iron Mill, North of Titch­ looking full. through the villages of Wick­ field was one of the early pig The Hampshire chalk is not In addition to measuring ham and Titchfield. The river iron manufacturers supplying entirely uniform and is split flow, the NRA regularly moni­ then finds its way to the sea at Portsmouth Dockyard and used into three classes, these being tors over 50 wells and bore­ Hillhead. water power to drive a drop the Upper, Middle and Lower holes to gather data about The landscape of the Meon hammer. The paper mill at Chalk. Over most of Hampshire underground reserves of water. catchment was sculpted in the Warnford was a one vat mill the Upper Chalk outcrops at the This data enables the extent of established in 1618. Although surface but it is in the Lower the groundwater table to be Titchfield Canal none of the traditional working Chalk that the river rises above plotted. The true groundwater mills survive today, traces of East Meon where the ground­ catchment area contribution the iron mill can be seen at water table intercepts the to the Meon is slightly larger Funtley and those of a subs­ surface and springs occur. than the surface catchment. tantial flour mill at Wickham. Between East and West Meon Both the Mid Southern and Several other mill buildings the river flows over the more Portsmouth Water Companies still exist along the river. permeable Upper Chalk. It is abstract water for public water Structures built to harness there, that because of the lower supply at a number of points in water power and to improve water table in dry summers, the the catchment. The major ones navigation where also used for river loses water through its being at East Meon, West Meon. the water meadow systems of bed and can dry up almost as Soberton and West Street. surface irrigation. Water was far downstream as Warnford. These are all groundwater ab­ led onto the meadows in winter Here the river is referred to as stractions and there are no by high level distributaries or being ‘perched’ above the direct water supply abstractions carriers (many of which still groundwater table. from the river. The water is exist) and then back into the In the Wamford area the mostly used within the im­ main channel. This kept the river flows again over the mediate catchment but there is ground temperature relatively Lower Chalk, where the water some export towards the Ports­ last Ice Age. Although it is un­ high and promoted the growth table is much higher. Here there mouth area. likely that the ice sheet reached of grass. The process was labour is a large increase in spring There is also a significant very far South, the area was intensive and changes in agri­ flow and the river rises accord­ number of private abstractions certainly very cold and the cultural practice from sheep to ingly. Then to the South the in the Meon Valley, many of ground would have been frozen dairy and arable use have been river crosses the Upper Chalk which are for spray irrigation, to a considerable depth all the a major factor in the demise of again and some flow is lost, particularly in the Titchfield year round. Under these perma­ the water meadow systems. though because the river is area, but there are also agricul­ frost conditions, frost action The name Meon is possibly a larger, the loss is less noticeable. tural abstractions to the North and very rapid runoff from rain­ legacy of the Celtic language. As with the majority of of Droxford. fall shaped the dry valleys that Meon is a word of the same Hampshire Chalk rivers the All abstractions are licensed exist today. In common with stem as Mene, Menai. etc. For flow' is split between a number by the NRA to ensure that the the other Hampshire chalk the Domesday survey East of channels over many sections water is only taken at the right streams, the actual line of the Meon was part of the Mene of the river’s length. This is times and from where it can river and its tributaries suggests hundred (a part of a shire) and often a relic of the old milling most be spared. a right angle grid pattern, re­ West Meon part of the and water meadow systems, Average annual rainfall is flecting the structure of the Menestoches. but also means that there are 838 mm. discharges restricting the middle and upper reaches. The houses were seriously affected. WATER QUALITY strength and quality of the National Rivers Authority has As a result, extensive fkxKl Because of the long residence treated effluents that may be built Fish passes at Titchfield, relief works were carried out time of the river water in the discharged. The discharges are Funtley and Wickham to ease in 1954—56. Six small arch chalk and the unique cleansing regularly monitored to ensure the upstream passage of sea bridges were replaced by clear properties of chalk rock, water that they meet their required trout to their spawning span structures and the stream of high quality that is hard, quality standards. grounds. was widened and deepened to alkaline and of relatively con­ Houses in the other smaller In the lower reaches dace improve its flood capacity. stant temperature flows beneath villages that are sited on the are the predominant coarse Flooding such as this is un­ the ground into the river. chalk but are not served by fish. Mullet enter the first mile common on chalk streams but This high quality water has mains foul drainage, tend to or so of the estuary. the floods in the upper river in given rise to a thriving cress use septic tanks which are the Fifties reflected the under­ industry in the Warnford area soakaway systems for foul lying geology. In the East Meon where a good proportion of drainage. Septic tanks are per­ and Warnford areas inliers of Hampshire cress is produced. mitted, subject to NRA licences Lower Chalk reach the surface. It also supports a medium sized which impose conditions on This chalk is much less per­ trout farm which is sited standards and quantity. Their meable than the Upper Chalk, downstream of Warnford use is only consented where allowing heavy rain to run-off Village adjacent to Wamford there is no risk of contamination rather than soak into the Lake.