- Middleton Stoney
-
Not to be confused with Stoney Middleton.
Coordinates: 51°54′29″N 1°13′30″W / 51.908°N 1.225°W
Middleton Stoney 
Middleton Stoney
Middleton Stoney shown within OxfordshirePopulation 312 (2001 census)[1] OS grid reference SP5323 Parish Middleton Stoney District Cherwell Shire county Oxfordshire Region South East Country England Sovereign state United Kingdom Post town Bicester Postcode district OX25 Dialling code 01869 Police Thames Valley Fire Oxfordshire Ambulance South Central EU Parliament South East England UK Parliament Banbury List of places: UK • England • Oxfordshire Middleton Stoney is a village and civil parish about 2.5 miles (4 km) west of Bicester, Oxfordshire.
Contents
History
Aves ditch is pre-Saxon and may have been dug as a boundary ditch. It still forms the western boundary of the parish.
Middleton Stoney existed by the time of King Edward the Confessor, when one Turi held the manor.[2]
The earliest parts of the Church of England parish church of All Saints[3] are Norman, dating from the middle of the 12th century.[4] The bell tower has a ring of five bells, all cast in 1717 by Henry Bagley of Chacombe.[2] The tenor bell was recast in 1883.[2]
All Saints' is now a member of the Church of England Benefice of Akeman, which includes the parishes of Bletchingdon, Chesterton, Hampton Gay, Kirtlington, Wendlebury and Weston-on-the-Green.[5]
Middleton Stoney had a motte-and-bailey castle, which was first recorded in 1215. Its remains are east of All Saints Church.[6]
The parish's common lands were enclosed at the end of the 17th century.[7] In 1824-25 George Child Villiers, 5th Earl of Jersey demolished the original village and manor house to make way for him to expand Middleton Park eastwards.[7] The castle mound and All Saints' church remain isolated within the extended park.[7] His wife Sarah Villiers, Countess of Jersey directed the building of new cottages on the edge of the park, each with a rustic porch and a flower garden.[7] These form the nucleus of the current village.[7]
The current village is at the crossroads of two main roads. The north-south road used to be the main road between Oxford and Brackley. In the 1920s it was classified as the A43. In the 1990s the M40 motorway was completed and the stretch of the A43 through Middleton Stoney was reclassified B430. The east-west road is the main road between Bicester and Enstone. In 1797 an Act of Parliament made this road into a turnpike.[2] In the 20th century it was classified B4030.
Middleton Park is a neo-Georgian country house built in 1938 by Edwin Lutyens and his son Robert for the 9th Earl of Jersey.[8]
Amenities
The village has one public house, the Jersey Arms. Middleton Stoney also has an Italian restaurant - Rigoletto Ristorante Italiano.
References
- ^ "Area: Middleton Stoney CP (Parish): Parish Headcounts". Neighbourhood Statistics. Office for National Statistics. http://neighbourhood.statistics.gov.uk/dissemination/LeadTableView.do?a=7&b=798583&c=Middleton+Stoney&d=16&e=15&g=479869&i=1001x1003x1004&o=1&m=0&r=1&s=1268090278234&enc=1&dsFamilyId=779. Retrieved 8 March 2010.
- ^ a b c d Lobel, 1959, pages 243-251
- ^ Oxfordshire Churches website: Middleton Stoney
- ^ Pevsner and Sherwood, 1974, pages 701-702
- ^ A Church Near You: Benefice of Akeman
- ^ Sherwood & Pevsner, 1974, pages 702-703
- ^ a b c d e Rowley, 1978, page137
- ^ Pevsner and Sherwood, 1974, page 703
Sources and further reading
- Blomfield, James Charles (1888). History of Middleton and Somerton. London.
- Lobel, Mary D, ed (1959). A History of the County of Oxford: Volume 6. Victoria County History. pp. 243–251.
- Rowley, Trevor (1978). Villages in the Landscape. Archaeology in the Field Series. London: J.M. Dent & Sons Ltd. p. 137. ISBN 0 460 04166 5.
- Sherwood, Jennifer; Pevsner, Nikolaus (1974). Oxfordshire. The Buildings of England. Harmondsworth: Penguin Books. pp. 701–704. ISBN 0 14 071045 0.
External links
- Map sources for Middleton Stoney
Categories:- Villages in Oxfordshire
- Civil parishes in Oxfordshire
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