Middleton is a house with a strong recusant history. Its estate was formerly a part of the properties associated with Wenlock Priory but, following the Dissolution it was sold by the Crown to a London mercer, Humphrey Pakington. His son, John (d. 1578), was, in turn, succeeded by his son, Humphrey (d. 1631), of Harvington Hall, Worcestershire. Humphrey Pakington’s adherence to the Catholic faith led to the Crown seizing his property in 1591 and yet he was able to regain Middleton and settle it on his daughter, Anne, in 1628 when she married Sir Henry Audley (d. circa 1672). The Audleys’ granddaughter, Apollonia (d. 1713) – daughter of Catherine Audley and Robert Barker of Monkwick in Essex – married Francis Canning (d. 1734) of Foxcote, Warwickshire, and ultimately conveyed the estate to that family. The Cannings’ great-great-granddaughter, Eliza Minto Canning (d. 1865), married P.H. Howard of Corby Castle in Cumbria and eventually inherited Middleton.

The house was sold in 1945 by the Lawsons, successors of the Howards. The new owners of the house, Mr and Mrs E.T. Rowlands, were Catholics and continued the use of the chapel which was served by the Montfort Fathers from Church Stretton. The chapel continued in use until 1973 when Bishop Grasar decided that the attendance was too low for a Sunday Mass.

The estate, which at its height in the nineteenth century comprised 4,000 acres, was sold up in stages. An attempt to sell what was described as the Priors Ditton Estate was made in 1881. A section of 1,800 acres, was sold to the Boynes of Burwarton in the 1880s by P.J.C. Howard, whilst a remaining portion was sold, in 1949, by Ursula, Lady Lawson (later Mrs Levin), comprising the Home Farm and other properties which went to Joseph Bell, the son of the family land agent. He, in turn, sold it on to Mr and Mrs Albert Corfield.

Middleton today appears largely eighteenth-century, with a main south-west facing front looking across a miniature park. Of three storeys with broad eaves and hefty low brick chimneystacks, the left-hand three bays of this front have pronounced keystones over the windows and a central timber pedimented doorcase, whilst the right-hand two bays have none. The rendered brick and stone building is of L-plan and on the north-west side, facing the road, the house has four narrow bays.