Since its origins, East Meon has been a farming village. To this day, farmers maintain the glorious landscape which surrounds the village on all sides. Over the centuries, the nature of farming has changed, and every change is reflected in the population and housing, most of all in the 19th century when the Enclosures, the Napoleonic Wars, the introduction of new technologies of agriculture and transport and the Corn Laws forced agricultural workers out of their farms or farm houses, into over-crowded dwellings in the village. Today, farming employs very few people but agriculture is still immensely important to East Meon.
