INTRODUCTION

At the head of the Meon Valley, proud and slender amidst its trees, stands the tower of West Meon Church. Here upon its ancient hill, with the huddle of thatched and mellow-tiled cottages clustered at its feet, the parish Church of St. John the Evangelist presides over one of the loveliest English village scenes imaginable. This is at least the second church in this place. The present building belongs to the early 1840's, the very first years of the Gothic Revival. According to firm tradition , St. Wilfred the Bishop first preached the faith to the village people during exile from his Northumbrian Bishopric from 681 to 686 A.D. west meon has always been a large, important parish ever since it was first settled by the Meonwara at least a century before that.

THE BUILDING OF THE PRESENT CHURCH
The foundation stone of the new church was laid on 9 August 1843 by the Rector, Archdeacon HENRY VINCENT BAYLEY. His invitation to a farmer parishioner is still kept with the parish records and reads, "Archdeacon BAYLEY will feel obliged if Mr. ARNOLD will give his labourers a holiday from 3 o'clock to enable them to be present in the Church field." The ensuing merrymaking resulted in several men being away for the whole week. The architect was GEORGE GILBERT SCOTT the elder, though the outline of the plan seems to have been that of the Rector who had built and repaired several churches elsewhere. West Meon Church is architecturally notable as being among the first in Hampshire to be influenced by the ideals of the Cambridge Camden Society, the Rector being a Cambridge man. The society was instrumental in re-introducing an archaeologically convincing Gothic style, as opposed to the older, romantic and insubstantial "Gothick". An example of the latter can be seen at Emsworth, completed only four years before. West Meon was also SCOTT's first church in Hampshire, there being no further work of his until St. Denys, Southampton (1868) and Highclere (1869). The builders were WILLIAM and HENRY LEWIS of West Meon, a most remarkable piece of workmanship for village builders. The fabric is still in extremely sound condition, needing only a minimum of repair and maintenance, a considerable tribute to both architects and builders.

The flintwork is believed to be unique in church building, and the individual flints were "knapped" by the women of the village who are said to have received a farthing apiece for them. The builders' yard lay just north of the church and is still known as Knapsyard (1977) or, less correctly Knaps Hard. Of the total cost of £12,000 only £1,000 was raised by the village, through a Parish rate, the remainder being a gift from the wealthy Rector. He had also been instrumental in considerably renovating the old Holy Trinity, Privett, then a Chapelry within the Parish, and removed the Rectory from the present (1977) Red Lion Inn to what is now West Meon House. He died before his Church was completed.

The day of consecration was Tuesday 5 May 1846 and was undertaken by the Lord Bishop of Winchester, CHARLES SUMNER, and again the occasion was marked with a village holiday.

THE NAVE
The memorial inscription is to ALICE McHARDY, a much loved district nurse and her sister. Nearby are the two War Memorial plaques. 30 men were lost from West Meon in the 1914-18 war, and another 9 in 1939-45.

THE ORGAN
The Organ Chamber, with its arches opening into the chancel and south aisle, is thirty years later than the rest of the church. It was completed in 1877 at a cost of £500, the gift of RICHARD EARWAKER who gave the organ at the same time. He was a member of an old West Meon family that has only recently died out, and had left the village, successfully to make his fortune.

THE TOWER CHAMBER - INTERIOR
Here is a remarkable display of heraldic glass, contemporary with the building. In the centre light are the arms of the sovereign, of WILLIAM HOWLEY, Archbishop of Canterbury, and the Duke of Wellington, Lord Lieutenant of Hampshire when the Church was built. The Bishop of Winchester, CHARLES SUMNER, who consecrated the Church, is commemorated in the arms at the top of the left hand light, along with Bishops and others with whom the Rector was connected. More arms in the window are of his companions at Eton and Cambridge.

On the walls of the Tower chamber are five unusually fine memorial tablets of former rectors, STEPHEN UNWIN (1772) and JOHN DAMPIER (1826), both of whom served the Parish for over 50 years each. Another is CHARLES DIGNUM (1827) of the Theatre Royal, Drury Lane who married into the RENNET family of Hall Place.

Above the screen at the entrance to the Tower Chamber is an exceptionally fine Royal Arms of Queen Anne, carved in three dimensions, coloured and gilt. At the foot are painted the names of the Churchwardens of 1712, JOHN SHAFT and THOMAS ANDREWS.

THE TOWER
There is a Ring of Eight Bells, the tenor weighing 12 and 3/4 cwt., all cast by Mears and Stainbank at Whitechapel. Their tone is exquisite. Six were installed when the church was built and the treble and second were added in 1897, another gift from RICHARD EARWAKER. The treble bears the inscription, "Waker of Ears I speak Earwaker's fame: one the gift's office, and the giver's name".

THE CHURCHYARD
In the churchyard are the graves of some famous people and at least one who was notorious. Just below the steps into the lower churchyard, on the left, is the table tomb of THOMAS LORD, still maintained by his Marylebone Cricket Club (MCC). The new Inn in the village was named after him in 1955, following a game of cricket between the village team and the MCC to mark the 200th. anniversary of his birth (1755). On the right, near the wall, is the grave of the parents of the social reformer, William Cobbett, who wrote the famous book "Rural Rides".

CHAPELRIES OF WEST MEON
By the nineteenth century the Chapel of the Holy Trinity, Privett was in a state of some disrepair, even though several attempts had been made to keep it in condition. The curates lived in the house opposite. In 1873 the chapel was rebuilt in its present magnificent style under Sir Arthur Blomfield at a cost of £22,000, the gift of W.Nicholson (of gin fame) of Basing Park. Privett became a separate parish in the same year.

THE MANOR of WEST MEON
Domesday Book (1086) records that the manor of West Meon, Hampshire, then held by the Bishops of Winchester, "had always belonged to the Bishopric". Early in the 13th. century it was given to the Prior and Convent of Winchester, (the governing body of the Cathedral), although from 1284 Bishop John of Pontoise specifically reserved to himself and his successors all rights in the Manor, save only the rights of overlordship. At the Taxatio of Pope Nicholas in 1292 the manor was assessed as producing £31.16s for the Cathedral annually, and at the Valor Ecclesiasticus of 1538, the sum had increased to £65.8s.2d., after which the Manor passed safely to the new Dean and Chapter of Winchester as the successor body to the monks. In 1544, however, it was confiscated by the Crown, and eventually granted by Letters patent to the WRIOTHESLEY family, the Earls of Southampton. After the restoration of 1660 it was sold to the NEALES of Warnford Park, ever since it has remained in secular hands.

THE RECTORS
The parish has always been served by a Rector. A complete list is known from 1284....

THE PARISH
West Meon is a large parish of 3,772 acres, but a population that has seldom exceeded 1,000.

Our thanks go to Alan Earwaker (descendent of the Earwakers in the text) for this history