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Middleton Stoney is a village and civil parish in the Cherwell District of Oxfordshire, England about 2 1⁄2 miles (4 km) west of Bicester. The 2011 UK census recorded the parish's population as 331. The parish's common lands were enclosed at the end of the 17th century. 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. The castle mound and All Saints' church remain isolated within the extended park. 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. 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 and Brackley. In the 1920s it was classified as the A43 road. 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. It was "disturnpiked" in the 19th century and in the 20th it was classified B4030. Middleton Park is a neo-Georgian country house built in 1938 by Edwin Lutyens (1869-1944) and his son Robert for the 9th Earl of Jersey. For more information, see the EN Wikipedia article Middleton Stoney. [edit] Research Tips
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