However silting started to restrict the passage of ships, and in order to maintain Titchfield's status as a port, the Earl of Southampton proposed that a canal should be constructed.

[8] This was formerly a tidal estuary, but one way valves block salt water and it is now freshwater river and marshes, wet meadows bisected by ditches, and fen.

[9] The site is managed to provide ideal conditions at different times of the year, with water levels lowered at the end of the waterfowl breeding season in order to expose food-rich mud to encourage migrating birds.

[12] The site is a winter refuge for ducks, geese and wading birds and avocet are known to use the location as a breeding ground in the summer months.

Water voles have been reintroduced to the reserve and the River Meon, as part of a project by South Downs National Park, Hampshire & Isle of Wight Wildlife Trust and The Environment Agency.