Titchfield Canal

The Titchfield Canal is a two-mile watercourse between the village of Titchfield, Hampshire, and the coast at Titchfield Haven adjacent to the modern nature reserve. Lying above and roughly parallel to the nearby River Meon it is plainly artificial, but its origins and purpose have been warmly debated. It should not be confused with the "New River", a leat from the north eastern corner of Wickham along the western side of the Meon valley, being supplied by various springs before almost joining the river north of Fontley mill. It reappears and its course has been restored near Bridge Lane, Originally, it followed a hillside course to the millpond supplying Titchfied Hammer. Originally designed to irrigate the water meadows in Funtley, it was taken over by the occupants of the forge which resulted in litigation between the forge operators and local farmers. That the "canal" has been used as a feeder channel for a water meadow system is beyond question. 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. Further, the remains of a couple of the sluices through which water was admitted from the Canal to the water meadows can still be seen, and 19th century 1:2500 maps show a dozen more but it was never used as a channel for ships to dock at Titchfield for which there is no evidence whatsoever. A very few ships landed goods at Titchfield Haven. 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. There is certainly a dike across the Estuary now, but what in detail was done in 1611 is not known. It has been further inferred that to get…