Titchfield Canal

The telltale surface patterns of water meadows can still be made out in places from the path along the Canal, and are even clearer from Google Earth images.

On 24 June 1611 the parish register notes that "the same day Titchfield Haven was shutt out by one Richard Talbotts industrie under gods permisione at the costs of the right honourable the Earle of Southampton".

It has been inferred from this that a dike was built across the Meon Estuary, preventing sailing vessels from entering the river and cutting off Titchfield from seaborne trade.

No contemporaneous archival evidence has yet come to light to support this hypothesis; what little documentation there is suggests a land reclamation project, for which a total closure of the estuary would not necessarily be required.

In a Chancery case starting in 1739 elderly residents testified that boats still sailed up to Titchfield in their lifetimes and only ceased to do so when the heirs of the Earl built a barrier across the river.