Middleton Stoney is a village and
civil parish
In England, a civil parish is a type of administrative parish used for local government. It is a territorial designation which is the lowest tier of local government below districts and counties, or their combined form, the unitary authorit ...
about west of
Bicester
Bicester ( ) is a historical market towngarden town and civil parish in the Cherwell district of northeastern Oxfordshire in Southern England that also comprises an eco town at North-East Bicester and self-build village aGraven Hill Its loca ...
,
Oxfordshire. The
2011 Census recorded the parish's population as 331. The parish measures about north–south and about east–west, and in 1959 its area was . Its eastern boundary is Gagle Brook, a tributary of the
River Ray
The River Ray is a tributary of the River Cherwell in south east England. It rises at Quainton Hill, Buckinghamshire and flows west through flat countryside for around to meet the Cherwell at Islip in Oxfordshire.
The Ray's catchment area ...
, and its western boundary is
Aves ditch. It is bounded to the north and south by field boundaries.
Archaeology
The remains of a
Roman
Roman or Romans most often refers to:
*Rome, the capital city of Italy
*Ancient Rome, Roman civilization from 8th century BC to 5th century AD
*Roman people, the people of ancient Rome
*'' Epistle to the Romans'', shortened to ''Romans'', a lette ...
building from the second century AD, possibly a barn, have been found southeast of the former castle. Aves ditch is pre-
Saxon and may have been dug as a boundary ditch.
Toponym
"Middleton" is a common
toponym
Toponymy, toponymics, or toponomastics is the study of '' toponyms'' (proper names of places, also known as place names and geographic names), including their origins, meanings, usage and types. Toponym is the general term for a proper name of ...
derived from
Old English
Old English (, ), or Anglo-Saxon, is the earliest recorded form of the English language, spoken in England and southern and eastern Scotland in the early Middle Ages. It was brought to Great Britain by Anglo-Saxon settlers in the mid-5th c ...
. It means the middle ''tūn'' (enclosure or
township
A township is a kind of human settlement or administrative subdivision, with its meaning varying in different countries.
Although the term is occasionally associated with an urban area, that tends to be an exception to the rule. In Australia, C ...
) of a group. The
Domesday Book
Domesday Book () – the Middle English spelling of "Doomsday Book" – is a manuscript record of the "Great Survey" of much of England and parts of Wales completed in 1086 by order of King William I, known as William the Conqueror. The manus ...
of 1086 records this particular Middleton as ''Middeltone''.
Episcopal registers record it as ''Mudelingtona'' in 1209–19 and ''Middellington'' in 1251. A document from 1242 included in the ''
Book of Fees'' records it as ''Mudelinton''. The earliest known record of the
affix "Stoney" is from 1552. It may refer to stone pits in the parish, from which
Jurassic
The Jurassic ( ) is a geologic period and stratigraphic system that spanned from the end of the Triassic Period million years ago (Mya) to the beginning of the Cretaceous Period, approximately Mya. The Jurassic constitutes the middle period of ...
Cornbrash
The Cornbrash Formation is a Middle Jurassic geological formation in England. It ranges in age from Bathonian to Callovian, the uppermost part of the Middle Jurassic. Dinosaur remains are among the fossils that have been recovered from the form ...
limestone
Limestone ( calcium carbonate ) is a type of carbonate sedimentary rock which is the main source of the material lime. It is composed mostly of the minerals calcite and aragonite, which are different crystal forms of . Limestone forms whe ...
was quarried to build
dry stone
Dry stone, sometimes called drystack or, in Scotland, drystane, is a building method by which structures are constructed from stones without any mortar to bind them together. Dry stone structures are stable because of their construction m ...
walls. It differentiates the village and parish from
Middleton Cheney
Middleton Cheney is a village and civil parish in West Northamptonshire, England. The village is about east of Banbury in Oxfordshire and about west-northwest of Brackley. The A422 road between Banbury and Brackley used to pass through Middle ...
in
Northamptonshire
Northamptonshire (; abbreviated Northants.) is a county in the East Midlands of England. In 2015, it had a population of 723,000. The county is administered by
two unitary authorities: North Northamptonshire and West Northamptonshire. It is ...
, about to the north.
Manor and castle
Middleton Stoney existed by the time of King
Edward the Confessor, when one Turi held the
manor. It was valued at 10
hides. Middleton Stoney Castle was a
motte-and-bailey that was first recorded in 1215. Its remains are east of All Saints' parish church and are a
Scheduled Ancient Monument
In the United Kingdom, a scheduled monument is a nationally important archaeological site or historic building, given protection against unauthorised change.
The various pieces of legislation that legally protect heritage assets from damage and d ...
.
Middleton Park is a
neo-Georgian country house designed by
Edwin Lutyens and his son
Robert
The name Robert is an ancient Germanic given name, from Proto-Germanic "fame" and "bright" (''Hrōþiberhtaz''). Compare Old Dutch ''Robrecht'' and Old High German ''Hrodebert'' (a compound of '' Hruod'' ( non, Hróðr) "fame, glory, honou ...
and built in 1938 for the
9th Earl of Jersey. It is a
Grade I listed building
In the United Kingdom, a listed building or listed structure is one that has been placed on one of the four statutory lists maintained by Historic England in England, Historic Environment Scotland in Scotland, in Wales, and the Northern Irel ...
.
Parish church
![MiddletonStoney AllSaints SouthDoor](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/3/37/MiddletonStoney_AllSaints_SouthDoor.JPG)
The earliest parts of the
Church of England parish church of
All Saints are
Norman
Norman or Normans may refer to:
Ethnic and cultural identity
* The Normans, a people partly descended from Norse Vikings who settled in the territory of Normandy in France in the 10th and 11th centuries
** People or things connected with the Norm ...
, built in the middle of the 12th century. In about 1190 the
chancel
In church architecture, the chancel is the space around the altar, including the choir and the sanctuary (sometimes called the presbytery), at the liturgical east end of a traditional Christian church building. It may terminate in an apse.
Ov ...
arch was inserted and the north
aisle
An aisle is, in general, a space for walking with rows of non-walking spaces on both sides. Aisles with seating on both sides can be seen in airplanes, certain types of buildings, such as churches, cathedrals, synagogues, meeting halls, par ...
and three-
bay arcade
Arcade most often refers to:
* Arcade game, a coin-operated game machine
** Arcade cabinet, housing which holds an arcade game's hardware
** Arcade system board, a standardized printed circuit board
* Amusement arcade, a place with arcade games
* ...
were added in a transitional style between Norman and
Early English Gothic
English Gothic is an architectural style that flourished from the late 12th until the mid-17th century. The style was most prominently used in the construction of cathedrals and churches. Gothic architecture's defining features are pointed ...
. In the 14th century the south aisle and its two-bay arcade were built. The nave has a
clerestory that was added in the 15th century. In 1805 a
transept
A transept (with two semitransepts) is a transverse part of any building, which lies across the main body of the building. In cruciform churches, a transept is an area set crosswise to the nave in a cruciform ("cross-shaped") building wi ...
al
mausoleum was added to the north side of the chancel for the
Child-Villiers family. In 1858 the church was
restored under the direction of the architect
Samuel Sanders Teulon
Samuel Sanders Teulon (2 March 1812 – 2 May 1873) was an English Gothic Revival architect, noted for his use of polychrome brickwork and the complex planning of his buildings.
Family
Teulon was born in 1812 in Greenwich, Kent, the son of a ...
, under whom the west tower was rebuilt and the Jersey mausoleum was
Normanised.
In 1860 a 14th-century Gothic
baptismal font was presented to the church. On its base a 17th-century inscription says ''This fonte came/from the Kings/chapel in Islipp...'' and claims that Edward the Confessor was baptised in it.
If true, it would be a
Saxon font that was re-cut and Gothicised in the 14th century. It may have been salvaged from the Saxon chapel of the Royal
House of Wessex
The House of Wessex, also known as the Cerdicings and the West Saxon dynasty, refers to the family, traditionally founded by Cerdic, that ruled Wessex in Southern England from the early 6th century. The house became dominant in southern England aft ...
at
Islip
Islip may refer to:
Places England
* Islip, Northamptonshire
*Islip, Oxfordshire
United States
*Islip, New York, a town in Suffolk County
** Islip (hamlet), New York, located in the above town
**Central Islip, New York, a hamlet and census-d ...
, which was damaged in the
English Civil War
The English Civil War (1642–1651) was a series of civil wars and political machinations between Parliamentarians (" Roundheads") and Royalists led by Charles I ("Cavaliers"), mainly over the manner of England's governance and issues of re ...
in 1645 and demolished in the 1780s. In 1868 the church was refitted to designs by the
Oxford Diocesan architect
GE Street, who added a
vestry
A vestry was a committee for the local secular and ecclesiastical government for a parish in England, Wales and some English colonies which originally met in the vestry or sacristy of the parish church, and consequently became known colloquiall ...
,
reredos, choir stalls and new
pulpit. The church is a
Grade II* listed building
In the United Kingdom, a listed building or listed structure is one that has been placed on one of the four statutory lists maintained by Historic England in England, Historic Environment Scotland in Scotland, in Wales, and the Northern Ir ...
.
[ The west ]tower
A tower is a tall structure, taller than it is wide, often by a significant factor. Towers are distinguished from masts by their lack of guy-wires and are therefore, along with tall buildings, self-supporting structures.
Towers are specifi ...
has a ring
Ring may refer to:
* Ring (jewellery), a round band, usually made of metal, worn as ornamental jewelry
* To make a sound with a bell, and the sound made by a bell
:(hence) to initiate a telephone connection
Arts, entertainment and media Film and ...
of six bells, all cast in 1717 by Henry III Bagley of Chacombe
Chacombe (sometimes Chalcombe in the past) is a village and civil parish in West Northamptonshire, England, about north-east of Banbury. It is bounded to the west by the River Cherwell, to the north by a tributary and to the south-east by the ...
. Mears and Stainbank of the Whitechapel Bell Foundry
The Whitechapel Bell Foundry was a business in the London Borough of Tower Hamlets. At the time of the closure of its Whitechapel premises, it was the oldest manufacturing company in Great Britain. The bell foundry primarily made church bells ...
recast the tenor and treble bells in 1883 and the fifth bell in 1885.
The parish churchyard has a Commonwealth War Graves Commission
The Commonwealth War Graves Commission (CWGC) is an intergovernmental organisation of six independent member states whose principal function is to mark, record and maintain the graves and places of commemoration of Commonwealth of Nations m ...
section with 27 Second World War
World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposi ...
burials. All but one are airmen from RAF Upper Heyford
RAF Upper Heyford was a Royal Air Force station located north-west of Bicester near the village of Upper Heyford, Oxfordshire, England. In the Second World War the airfield was used by Bomber Command. During the Cold War, Upper Heyford was one ...
in the next parish, including 10 from the Royal Canadian Air Force
The Royal Canadian Air Force (RCAF; french: Aviation royale canadienne, ARC) is the air and space force of Canada. Its role is to "provide the Canadian Forces with relevant, responsive and effective airpower". The RCAF is one of three environm ...
and two from the Royal New Zealand Air Force. The exception is a Royal Navy
The Royal Navy (RN) is the United Kingdom's naval warfare force. Although warships were used by English and Scottish kings from the early medieval period, the first major maritime engagements were fought in the Hundred Years' War against ...
officer, Lieut
A lieutenant ( , ; abbreviated Lt., Lt, LT, Lieut and similar) is a commissioned officer rank in the armed forces of many nations.
The meaning of lieutenant differs in different militaries (see comparative military ranks), but it is often s ...
Conroy Ancil, who served on the escort carrier and died in 1943. All Saints' is now part of the Akeman Church of England Benefice, which includes the parishes of Bletchingdon
Bletchingdon (also known as Bletchington) is a village and civil parish north of Kidlington and southwest of Bicester in Oxfordshire, England. Bletchingdon parish includes the hamlet of Enslow just over west of the village. The 2011 Census r ...
, Chesterton, Hampton Gay
Hampton Gay is a village in the Cherwell Valley about north of Kidlington, Oxfordshire.
Archaeology
In 1972 a cast bronze clasp was found at Hampton Gay near St Giles' parish church. It is decorated with stylised '' Acanthus'' leaves and may ...
, Kirtlington
Kirtlington is a village and Civil parishes in England, civil parish in Oxfordshire about west of Bicester. The parish includes the Hamlet (place), hamlet of Northbrook. The United Kingdom Census 2011, 2011 Census recorded the parish's populat ...
, Wendlebury
Wendlebury is a village and civil parish about southwest of Bicester and about from Junction 9 of the M40. It lends its name to Wendlebury Interchange, a major junction between the A34, A41, and M40 roads. A stream flows through the centre o ...
and Weston-on-the-Green.
Economic and social history
The parish's common land
Common land is land owned by a person or collectively by a number of persons, over which other persons have certain common rights, such as to allow their livestock to graze upon it, to collect wood, or to cut turf for fuel.
A person who has a ...
s were inclosed at the end of the 17th century. In 1824–25 George Child Villiers, 5th Earl of Jersey
George Child Villiers, 5th Earl of Jersey, GCH, PC (19 August 1773 – 3 October 1859), previously George Villiers and styled Viscount Villiers until 1805, was a British courtier and Conservative politician from the Villiers family.
He added ...
had the original village and manor house
A manor house was historically the main residence of the lord of the manor. The house formed the administrative centre of a manor in the European feudal system; within its great hall were held the lord's manorial courts, communal meals w ...
demolished to make way for him to expand Middleton Park eastwards. The castle mound and All Saints' church remain isolated within the extended park. His wife Sarah Villiers, Countess of Jersey
Sarah Sophia Child Villiers, Countess of Jersey (4 March 1785 – 26 January 1867), born Lady Sarah Fane, was an English noblewoman and banker, and through her marriage a member of the Villiers family.
Early life
She was the eldest daughter of ...
directed the building of new cottages on the edge of the park, each with a rustic porch and a flower garden. These form the nucleus of the current village.
The current village is at the crossroads of two main roads. The north–south road used to be the main road between Oxford
Oxford () is a city in England. It is the county town and only city of Oxfordshire. In 2020, its population was estimated at 151,584. It is north-west of London, south-east of Birmingham and north-east of Bristol. The city is home to the ...
and Brackley
Brackley is a market town and civil parish in West Northamptonshire, England, bordering Oxfordshire and Buckinghamshire, from Oxford and from Northampton. Historically a market town based on the wool and lace trade, it was built on the inter ...
. 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
Enstone is a village and civil parish in England, about east of Chipping Norton and north-west of Oxford city. The civil parish, one of Oxfordshire's largest, consists of the villages of Church Enstone and Neat Enstone, with the hamlets of Cha ...
. In 1797 an Act of Parliament
Acts of Parliament, sometimes referred to as primary legislation, are texts of law passed by the Legislature, legislative body of a jurisdiction (often a parliament or council). In most countries with a parliamentary system of government, acts of ...
made this road into a turnpike
Turnpike often refers to:
* A type of gate, another word for a turnstile
* In the United States, a toll road
Turnpike may also refer to:
Roads United Kingdom
* A turnpike road, a principal road maintained by a turnpike trust, a body with powers ...
. It was disturnpiked in the 19th century and in the 20th it was classified B4030.
Amenities
The village has a pub
A pub (short for public house) is a kind of drinking establishment which is licensed to serve alcoholic drinks for consumption on the premises. The term ''public house'' first appeared in the United Kingdom in late 17th century, and was ...
that used to be called the Eagle and Child. It is now the Jersey Arms
Jersey ( , ; nrf, Jèrri, label=Jèrriais ), officially the Bailiwick of Jersey (french: Bailliage de Jersey, links=no; Jèrriais: ), is an island country and self-governing Crown Dependency near the coast of north-west France. It is the la ...
, an hotel
A hotel is an establishment that provides paid lodging on a short-term basis. Facilities provided inside a hotel room may range from a modest-quality mattress in a small room to large suites with bigger, higher-quality beds, a dresser, a re ...
owned by Shepherd Cox Hotels and operated as a Best Western SureStay Hotel. The village has an Italian
Italian(s) may refer to:
* Anything of, from, or related to the people of Italy over the centuries
** Italians, an ethnic group or simply a citizen of the Italian Republic or Italian Kingdom
** Italian language, a Romance language
*** Regional Ita ...
restaurant, the Rigoletto.Rigoletto Ristorante Italiano
/ref> Middleton Stoney used to have a parish school. The building is now the village hall
A village hall is a public building in a village used for various things such as:
United Kingdom
In the United Kingdom, a village hall is usually a building which contains at least one large room (plus kitchen and toilets), is owned by a local ...
.
Public transport
Diamond
Diamond is a solid form of the element carbon with its atoms arranged in a crystal structure called diamond cubic. Another solid form of carbon known as graphite is the chemically stable form of carbon at room temperature and pressure, ...
bus route 250 serves Middleton Stoney, linking the village with Bicester in one direction and Oxford ''via'' Upper Heyford and in the other. Buses run from Mondays to Saturdays, mostly at hourly intervals. There is no late evening service while Sunday services run only between Upper Heyford and Bicester
Bicester ( ) is a historical market towngarden town and civil parish in the Cherwell district of northeastern Oxfordshire in Southern England that also comprises an eco town at North-East Bicester and self-build village aGraven Hill Its loca ...
.
References
Sources and further reading
*
*
*
*
*
*
External links
Middleton Stoney Village Website
*
{{authority control
Civil parishes in Oxfordshire
Villages in Oxfordshire