West Meon

Coordinates: 51°00′43″N 1°05′16″W / 51.01192°N 1.08773°W / 51.01192; -1.08773

West Meon is a small village and civil parish in Hampshire, England, with a population of 749 people as of the last UK census.

It is situated near to Petersfield and East Meon, on the headwaters of the River Meon.

There are a number of walks around the village and surrounding hills along the South Downs Way.

The Parish of West Meon was possibly in the parcel of land on the Meon River which was mentioned in Anglo-Saxon documents. The Manor of West Meon was listed in the Domesday Book as owned by the Bishop of Winchester, as it had always belonged to the church. A charter of 1205 confirmed the grant of land to the Prior and Convent of St. Swithun, Winchester, in whose hands it remained until the Dissolution of the Monasteries. In 1541 the manor was granted to the Dean and Chapter of Winchester by Henry VIII, and the maintenance of six theology students at each of the universities of Oxford and Cambridge was ordered. In 1544 the king changed this regulation, and the manor was granted to Thomas Wriothesley, Earl of Southampton, in whose family the manor remained until 1677.