Great Tew is a village and civil parish in the Cotswold Hills in Oxfordshire, England, about northeast of Chipping Norton and southwest of Banbury.

Early and Mediaeval history

Evidence that the area has been inhabited since at least the Bronze Age includes a barrow about south of the village. The hypocaust and mosaic floors of a Roman villa from the 3rd and 4th centuries AD have been found southeast of the village at Beaconsfield Farm.

Great Tew village was founded in Anglo-Saxon times. Ælfric of Abingdon held the manor of Great Tew by 990 and became Archbishop of Canterbury in 995. Aelfric died in 1005, leaving Great Tew to Saint Alban's Abbey. In 1049-1052 the abbey leased Great Tew:

Leofstan, abbot, and St Albans Abbey, to Tova, widow of Wihtric, in return for 3 marks of gold and an annual render of honey; lease, for her lifetime and that of her son, Godwine, of land at Cyrictiwa, with reversion to St Albans.

In Old English Cyrictiwa means "Church Tew", distinguishing the village from neighbouring Little Tew which lacked its own church, and Nether Worton which seems not to have had its own chapel until the 12th century.

William the Conqueror granted the manor to his step-brother Bishop Odo of Bayeux, and it was recorded amongst Odo's estates in the Domesday Book in 1086.

The Church of England parish church of Saint Michael and all Angels was originally Norman, and the south doorway from about 1170 survives from that period. St Michael's was rebuilt in the 13th century, and the arcade of stone pillar inside the building and the south porch survive from this period. Early in the 14th century the aisle were enlarged and most of the present windows were installed. The bell tower was built late in the 14th century and its style is transitional between the Decorated and Perpendicular. Next the Perpendicular style clerestorey was added. The architect Thomas Rickman repaired St Michael's and restored its chancel in 1826-1827. The church tower has a ring of eight bells. They were cast in 1709, making them the oldest ring of eight in Oxfordshire outside the city of Oxford itself.

The living of St Michael's was granted to Godstow Abbey in 1302 and remained under its control until the abbey was suppressed in the Dissolution of the Monasteries in 1539. The villages of Nether Worton and Little Tew were part of the ecclesiastical parish of Great Tew. Nether Worton became a separate parish in the 17th century and Little Tew in the 1850s. Great and Little Tews were reunited as a single benefice in 1930.

Great Tew is recorded as having two watermills by the 13th century, and both were still in use when the estate was surveyed in 1778. One mill had ceased working by 1815 and the other was disused by 1837.

Tew Great Park was created before the latter part of the 16th century.

Later history

Sir Lawrence Tanfield, Lord Chief Baron of the Exchequer, bought Great Tew estate in 1611. He deprived the villagers of timber, causing some of the cottages to fall into disrepair. Tanfield inclosed part of Great Tew's lands in 1622. However, most of Great Tew's farmland was not inclosed until an Act of Parliament to that effect was passed in 1767.

After Tanfield died in 1626, followed by his wife Elizabeth in 1629, Great Tew passed to his young son-in-law Lucius Cary, 2nd Viscount Falkland.

In the 1630s Lucius gathered a circle of writers and scholars at Great Tew including Abraham Cowley, Ben Jonson and Edmund Waller. During the English Civil War the young Viscount fought on the Royalist side and was killed at the First Battle of Newbury. Great Tew remained in the Cary family until the death of Anthony Cary, 5th Viscount of Falkland in 1694.

Viscount Cary lived in a large manor house which seems to have been built in or before the early part of the 17th century and seems to have been extended in the latter part of the 17th century. It was demolished in about 1800 (see below) but outlying structures from circa 1700 including its stable block, dovecote and stone gatepiers survive.

Many of the homes in the village seem to have been built in the 17th century. Given the Tanfields' behaviour towards the villagers, they are more likely to have been built during the decades when the Cary family had the estate. Every cottage and house is built from the local ironstone from Great Tew's own quarry, and most have thatched roofs.

In 1780 and 1793 Great Tew estate was bought by George Stratton, who had made a fortune in the East India Company. He was succeeded by his son G.F. Stratton. The manor house had evidently fallen into disrepair, as the Strattons lived in a smaller Georgian dower house slightly to the south of it and had the manor house demolished in about 1803. In 1808 G.F. Stratton engaged the Scots botanist and garden designer John Loudon, who laid out North and south Drives in Great Tew Park and planted ornamental trees in and around the village, which today enhance its picturesque appearance.

In 1815-1816 Matthew Robinson Boulton, the son of the manufacturer Matthew Boulton of Soho, Birmingham, bought Great Tew Estate. He had most of the village's old cottages and houses rebuilt and embellished from 1819 onwards. In 1825 Boulton added a gothic style library to the east end of the house, and in the middle of the 19th century the Boulton family added a large Tudor style section to the west end. Great Tew remained with the Boulton family until M.E. Boulton died without heirs in 1914.

In the 17th century Lettice Cary, wife of the 2nd Viscount Falkland (see above) cared for the poor and sick of Great Tew and founded a village school. The village still had a school in the 18th century, but a schoolroom attached to the church fell was disused by 1738 and later in that century it was demolished. A school had been re-established by 1774 and its building was enlarged in 1815. In 1818 the village had also two dame schools. In 1852 M.R. Boulton re-housed the primary school in a new building on the village green. Since 1923 the school has also served Little Tew.

A sawmill powered by a beam engine was built in the middle of the 19th century. The beam engine is no longer there but the engine house and its tall chimney survive.

After M.E. Boulton's death in 1914 Great Tew estate was held in public trusteeship for nearly fifty years, during which time many of its historic cottages and houses were unoccupied and allowed to become derelict. In 1962 Major Eustace Robb inherited the estate and declared he would restore its prosperity and buildings. However, a decade later many cottages were continuing to decay and Jennifer Sherwood and Sir Nikolaus Pevsner condemned their deterioration as

one of the most depressing sights in the whole county. Terraces of cottages lie derelict (1972) and will soon be beyond hope of restoration. A scheme of gradual rehabilitation is said to be in progress, but nothing has been done meanwhile to prevent the decay of unused cottages, some of which are completely ruinous and will need to be entirely rebuilt.

In 1978 Great Tew village was declared a conservation area. Major Robb died in 1985. Great Tew estate is now owned by the Johnston family, who have worked to restore the village. In 2000 the Johnstons reopened Great Tew's historic quarry to supply ironstone for building.

Amenities

The village school is now a county primary school.

The Falkland Arms public house (Wadworth Brewery) is a 16th or 17th century building that had acquired its current name by at least 1830. Today it offers accommodation as well as serving food and real ale and is listed in a Michelin Guide.

Great Tew has a village shop which is also a small café. It was formerly the post office. The Tew Centre, between the village and Little Tew, also has a café and is the home of Great and Little Tew Cricket Club

Sources

References

1. Crossley, Alan (ed.), 1983 pp. 223-247
2. The Electronic Sawyer, catalogue no. S 1425
3. Crossley, Alan (ed.), 1983 pp. 285-293
4. Sherwood & Pevsner, 1974, pp. 625-626
5. Oxford Diocesan Guild of Church Bell Ringers, Banbury Branch
6. Great Tew village website
7. Sherwood & Pevsner, 1974, p. 626
8. Sherwood & Pevsner, 1974, p. 627
9. Great Tew Estate
10. Sherwood & Pevsner, 1974, p. 628
11. Great Tew Estate
12. Great Tew Primary School
13. The Falkland Arms
14. The Tew Centre
15. Tew Cricket Club.