The Transformation of the Meon Estuary

1611

The most significant event in the landscape history of Hill Head was the construction of a sea wall across the mouth of the River Meon in the early seventeenth century. This was carried out on the orders of the third Earl of Southampton, Henry Wriothesley, who sought to create a navigable canal from Titchfield to the sea. The scheme was never fully successful as a canal, but the sea wall permanently altered the estuary. The tidal waters were cut off, and the former estuary began to silt up and develop into freshwater marshes and reedbeds. Over the following centuries, this process created the wetland habitats that would eventually become Titchfield Haven Nature Reserve. The transformation of the estuary also changed the coastline at Hill Head, as the river mouth became narrower and the pattern of sediment deposition along the shore was altered. The sea wall itself, known locally as the Great Sea Wall, can still be traced in the landscape. The Earl of Southampton's intervention, though motivated by commercial ambition, inadvertently created one of Hampshire's most important wildlife habitats.