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 headwaters of the River Meon. The parish has an area of . The boundaries of the present parish of East Meon date back to 1894. About a mile to the west rises the prominent hill of Henwood Down (201 m). The South Downs Way passes over the southern spur of the hill. Petersfield railway station is the nearest station, east of the village. History There are Bronze Age burial barrows within the parish of East Meon which date back to around 2000 BC. There is also an Iron Age fort, situated just outside the parish boundaries on Old Winchester Hill, constructed approximately 500 years before the Romans invaded Britain. There is also evidence of Roman occupation in and around the village. East Meon itself may have started life somewhere between 400 and 600 AD. Then it was part of a Royal Manor belonging first to King Alfred the Great who left it in his will to his youngest son Æthelweard (c.880-922). The Domesday Book of 1086 shows that the Manor then belonged to William the Conqueror; it records six mills and land for 64 ploughs. About 1280 a family from East Meon, who changed their name to de Meones, moved to Dublin, where they became substantial landowners and gave their name to the suburb of Rathmines. Opposite the church is the old Court House, with a mediaeval hall dating from the late 15th century. At this time, and for many centuries, East Meon belonged to successive Bishops of Winchester. The Court House was its administrative centre and home to a number of monks who played host to the Bishop when he visited East Meon. They also recorded all manorial imports and exports. East Meon played its part in the English Civil War of the 1640s. The Parliamentarians camped near the village before the Battle of Cheriton in 1644, and it is said that they stole the lead lining from the font to make their bullets. The battle turned out to be a turning point in the war. During the Second World War, Hitler's Luftwaffe dropped 38 high explosive bombs and an estimated 3,500 incendiary bombs in the Parish; the only loss