MIDDLETON is a parish and village situated on an eminence N.W. of the main road between Leominster and Tenbury, and on the borders of Worcestershire. It is distant about 6 miles N.E. of Leominster, 5 S.W. of Tenbury, and 19 N.N.E. of Hereford; is in Wolphy hundred, Leominster union, petty sessional division, county court district, and polling district. The Berrington and Eye station on the Shrewsbury and Hereford joint railway is distant about 4 miles west. The population in 1861 was 445; in 1871, 382; inhabited houses, 75; families or separate occupiers, 80; area of parish, 2,921 acres; annual rateable value, £3,268. The Rev. E.A. Uthwatt, the trustees of Lord Rodney, Rev. John Langley, Thomas Edmunds, Esq., and Mr. Charles Postans, are the principal landowners. The soil is clayey; subsoil, clay and stone. In the old red sandstone quarries of this parish geologists will find many species of fossils. The chief crops are wheat, beans, hops, and fruit. Middleton is in the diocese and archdeaconry of Hereford and rural deanery of Leominster; living, a vicarage with that of Kimbolton annexed; joint value, £150; patron, the Lord Bishop of Hereford; vicar, Rev. Thomas Hutchinson, M.A., of St. John's College, Cambridge, who was, instituted in 1841, and resides at Grantsfield, near Leominster.

The church, dedicated to St. Mary, is of the Norman and Early English styles, and has a large tower (containing three bells), nave, chancel, porch, font, old register chest, &c. There are charities of 10s. yearly value. A school for 42 children was erected in 1874 at a cost of £210, adjacent to a cottage which is church property. Moor Abbey, the seat of John George and Thomas Edmunds, Esqs., is situated where buildings of some antiquity previously stood. Here are some remains of a moat, which surrounded the original buildings. A chapel of ancient date formerly stood a short distance from here; its remains were taken down about the year 1800. At Old Wood, in the adjoining parish of Tenbury, distant about 2 miles S.W. from that town, and 3 N.E. from Middleton, stands the handsome pile of buildings comprising the church and college of St. Michael - an institution founded by the Rev. Sir Frederick Arthur Gore Ouseley, Bart., M.A., Mus. Doc., at an outlay of nearly £30,000.

The ecclesiastical district of St. Michael and all Angels was formed out of the parishes of Tenbury (Worcestershire) and Middleton-on-the-Hill and Laysters (Herefordshire), in 1856. Under a recent Act the living is now constituted a vicarage. The church is a magnificent structure of stone, in the Middle Pointed style of architecture, and was consecrated on the 29th of September, 1856. The interior is adorned with beautiful stained glass, especially in the east and west windows, which represents figures of angels, the Crucifixion, and our Lord in glory; Messrs. Hardman & Co., of Birmingham, were the artists. Splendid lamps for chancel (by Skidmore), after the church of the Holy Sepulchre in Jerusalem, were presented by the Rev. Richard W. Norman; those for the nave were the gift of the Hon. Miss Rushout, who also gave the Communion plate, &c. The font is placed in a complete baptistery well of water, and there are only two of its kind in the kingdom. The pulpit, a beautifully carved one, was the gift of Captain Otley. The organ, a remarkable instrument having 64 stops and 4 manuals, with many other novel and effective features, was erected by Messrs. Flight & Son, under the direction of the Rev. Sir Frederick A. Gore Ouseley, Bart., M.A., Mus. Doc., professor of Music in the University of Oxford, and precentor of Hereford cathedral, &c.

Full choral services are performed daily; matins, 9 a.m.; evensong, 6 p.m.; on Sundays and Saints' days - matins, 11 a.m.; evensong, 6 p.m. The college was founded to carry out the musical, classical, and religious education of young gentlemen in the principles of the Church of England, after the manner of Radley, Bradfield, and other places. There are foundation scholarships attached to this college, for which there is annual election. The pupils are prepared for the upper forms of public schools and for the university. The vicarage of St. Michael's and the wardenship of the college are vested in the person of the founder, the Rev. Sir F.A. Gore Ouseley, Bart., M.A., Mus. Doc., whose father, the Right Hon. Sir Gore Ouseley, was ambassador to the Court of Persia, and well known for his powers as an Oriental linguist and diplomatist.