Great Tew

Great Tew

St. Michael & All Angels parish church
Great Tew
 Great Tew shown within Oxfordshire
Population 156 (2011 Census)[1]
OS grid referenceSP3929
Civil parishGreat Tew
DistrictWest Oxfordshire
Shire countyOxfordshire
RegionSouth East
CountryEngland
Sovereign stateUnited Kingdom
Post town Chipping Norton
Postcode district OX7
Dialling code 01608
Police Thames Valley
Fire Oxfordshire
Ambulance South Central
EU Parliament South East England
UK ParliamentWitney
WebsiteGreat Tew
List of places
UK
England
Oxfordshire

Coordinates: 51°57′47″N 1°26′06″W / 51.963°N 1.435°W / 51.963; -1.435

Great Tew is a village and civil parish in the Cotswold Hills in Oxfordshire, England, about 5 miles (8 km) northeast of Chipping Norton and 8 miles (13 km) southwest of Banbury. The 2011 Census recorded a parish population of 156.[1]

Great Tew is in the West Oxfordshire District. It has no parish council but holds a parish meeting annually.[2]

Archaeology

Evidence that the area has been inhabited since at least the Bronze Age includes a barrow about 1 mile (1.6 km) south of the village.

Excavations of the site of a Roman villa 1.5 miles (2.4 km) southeast of the village at Beaconsfield Farm revealed a hypocaust and mosaic floors,[3] pottery dated to the 3rd and 4th centuries AD[4] and evidence that occupation of the site may have begun early in the 2nd century AD.[4]

Manor

Great Tew was settled in the Anglo-Saxon era. Ælfric of Abingdon held the manor of Great Tew by 990 and became Archbishop of Canterbury in 995. Ælfric died in 1005, leaving Great Tew to Saint Alban's Abbey.[3] In 1049–52 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.[5]

In Old English the toponym 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.[3]

William the Conqueror granted the manor to his step-brother Odo, Bishop of Bayeux, and it was recorded amongst Odo's estates in the Domesday Book in 1086.[6]

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

Sir Lawrence Tanfield, Lord Chief Baron of the Exchequer, bought Great Tew estate in 1611 from Edward Rainsford. He deprived the villagers of timber, causing some of the cottages to fall into disrepair. Tanfield enclosed part of Great Tew's lands in 1622. However, most of the parish's common lands were not enclosed until Parliament passed an Enclosure Act for Great Tew in 1767.

Miniature of Lucius Cary, 2nd Viscount Falkland

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.[3]

In the 1630s Lucius gathered together the Great Tew circle of writers and scholars, including Abraham Cowley, Ben Jonson and Edmund Waller.[7] During the English Civil War the young Viscount fought on the Royalist side and was killed in 1643 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.[3]

Manor house and grounds

Viscount Cary lived in a large manor house that 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 about 1700 including its stables, dovecote and stone gatepiers survive.

In 1780 and 1793 Great Tew estate was bought by George Stratton, who had made a fortune in the East India Company. He died in March 1800 and was succeeded by his son George Frederick 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 George Frederick 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.[3]

In 1815–16 Matthew Robinson Boulton, the son of the manufacturer Matthew Boulton of Soho, Birmingham, bought Great Tew Estate. In 1834 Boulton added a Gothic Revival library to the east end of the house, and in 1856 the Boulton family had a large Tudor style section designed by F.S. Waller added to the west end.[8][9] Great Tew remained with the Boulton family until M.E. Boulton died without heirs in 1914.[3] As of 2014 the house is largely unoccupied and clad in scaffolding and plastic sheeting. It is a restoration project for the estate owners, the Johnston family.[10]

Parish church

17th-century gateway leading to St. Michael's parish church

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 arcades of stone pillars inside the building and the south porch survive from this period. Early in the 14th century the aisles 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 Gothic and Perpendicular Gothic. Next the Perpendicular Gothic clerestory was added. The architect Thomas Rickman repaired St Michael's and restored its chancel in 1826–27.[11]

In the chancel is a monument to Mary Anne Boulton that includes a reclining female figure sculpted in white marble by Francis Chantrey in 1834.[7] The church is a Grade I listed building.[12]

The tower has a ring of eight bells.[13] Six were cast in 1709 by Abraham I Rudhall[14] of Gloucester.[15] A seventh was cast in 1785 by Abraham's grandsons Charles and John Rudhall[14] of Gloucester.[15] The youngest bell was cast in 1842 by W & J Taylor,[14] presumably at their then foundry in Oxford.[15] The organ, by Henry Williams of Cheltenham, dates from about 1863. It is a magnificent example of early Victorian organ-building, the work of a maker who as foreman of the London firm of Gray and Davison had been involved in the building of the Great Exhibition organ of 1851, now at St Anne's, Limehouse.

The living of St. Michael's was granted to the Benedictine 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 Church of England benefice in 1930.[3]

Economic and social history

Mills

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.[3] Mill Lane, about 600 yards (550 m) north of the village, is named after a mill that was built or rebuilt in the 17th century for wool processing.[16] Traces of its mill pond, mill stream and wheel chamber were still visible in the early 1980s.[16] Further north, about 0.9 miles (1.4 km) from the village, there was a mill on the stream near Cottenham Farm.[16] Traces of its mill ponds, buildings and two waterwheels were still visible in the early 1980s,[16] and a small wood there is still called Pool Spinney. One mill had ceased being used by the time G.F. Stratton sold the estate in 1815; the other was disused by 1837.[3]

One of J.C. Loudon's works for G.F. Stratton after 1808 was an elaborate watermill at Tracey Farm in the south of the parish.[17] It was a bone mill, because the British Agricultural Revolution had identified lime as a fertiliser and bone meal as a source of it.[17] The stream at Tracey Farm was dammed in a mill pond, and both the leat feeding the waterwheel and the tail race downstream of it were in brick-lined tunnels, the latter 20 feet (6 m) below ground.[17] Whereas most Oxfordshire watermills have an undershot or a breastshot wheel, Loudon adopted a more efficient backshot wheel.[17] It was made of wood and iron and was 16 feet (5 m) in diameter.[17]

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.

One of the thatched cottages in Brook Road

Cottages

Many of the homes in the village seem to have been built in the 17th century, during the Great Rebuilding of England.[18] 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.

Matthew Robinson Boulton had most of the village's old cottages and houses rebuilt and embellished from 1819 onwards.

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.[19] However, a decade later many cottages were continuing to decay and Jennifer Sherwood and Sir Nikolaus Pevsner condemned their deterioration as

A cottage standing derelict in 1980
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.[20]

In 1978 another academic authority described Major Robb's treatment of Great Tew as a "notorious example" that had "demonstrated that a singleminded or neglectful owner can still cause both the community and the village fabric to die".[21] Also in 1978, Great Tew village was declared a conservation area. In 1985 Major Robb died, leaving Great Tew estate to the Johnston family. The Johnstons have worked to restore the village and in 2000 reopened Great Tew's historic quarry to supply ironstone for building.[22]

Many of the cottages are Grade II listed buildings. One pair of 17th-century cottages, 57 and 58 The Lane, are Grade II* listed.[23]

Great Tew County Primary School, built in 1852

School

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 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.[24] In 1923 it was enlarged to accommodate pupils from Little Tew. It has three classrooms and teaches pupils in classes of mixed age and ability. It is a county primary school controlled by Oxfordshire County Council.[25]

The Falkland Arms public house

Amenities

The Falkland Arms public house is mostly a late 17th-century building, in part possibly earlier.[26] It acquired its current name by 1830[3] and is now controlled by Wadworth Brewery. Today it offers accommodation as well as serving food and real ale and is listed in a Michelin Guide.[27]

Great Tew has a village shop which is also a small café. It was formerly the post office. The Tew Centre,[28] between the village and Little Tew, also has a café and is the home of Great and Little Tew Cricket Club.[29]

References

  1. 1 2 "Area: Great Tew CP (Parish): Key Figures for 2011 Census: Key Statistics". Neighbourhood Statistics. Office for National Statistics. Retrieved 1 December 2013.
  2. ↑ "Great Tew Parish Meeting". Oxfordshire County Council. Retrieved 29 August 2014.
  3. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 Crossley 1983, pp. 223–247.
  4. 1 2 Case & Kirk 1951, p. 80.
  5. ↑ "S 1425". Anglo-Saxon Charters. Retrieved 27 January 2012.
  6. ↑ Crossley 1983, pp. 285–293.
  7. 1 2 Sherwood & Pevsner 1974, p. 626.
  8. ↑ Sherwood & Pevsner 1974, p. 627.
  9. ↑ Historic England. "Great Tew House, New Road (1368164)". National Heritage List for England. Retrieved 29 August 2014.
  10. ↑ "Bucket/GT Manor". Photobucket. Retrieved 27 April 2014.
  11. ↑ Sherwood & Pevsner 1974, pp. 625–626.
  12. ↑ Historic England. "Church of St Michael and All Angels, New Road (1193136)". National Heritage List for England. Retrieved 29 August 2014.
  13. ↑ Oxford Diocesan Guild of Church Bell Ringers, Banbury Branch
  14. 1 2 3 Smith, Martin (22 August 2010). "Great Tew S Michael & All Angels". Dove's Guide for Church Bell Ringers. Central Council of Church Bell Ringers. Retrieved 3 December 2010.
  15. 1 2 3 Dovemaster (25 June 2010). "Bell Founders". Dove's Guide for Church Bell Ringers. Central Council of Church Bell Ringers. Retrieved 3 December 2010.
  16. 1 2 3 4 Foreman 1983, p. 108.
  17. 1 2 3 4 5 Foreman 1983, p. 70.
  18. ↑ Rowley 1978, p. 131.
  19. ↑ Great Tew Estate
  20. ↑ Sherwood & Pevsner 1974, p. 628.
  21. ↑ Rowley 1978, p. 32.
  22. ↑ Great Tew Estate
  23. ↑ Historic England. "57 and 58, The Lane (1286152)". National Heritage List for England. Retrieved 29 August 2014.
  24. ↑ Historic England. "School and Schoolhouse (1052516)". National Heritage List for England. Retrieved 29 August 2014.
  25. ↑ "Our School". Great Tew Primary School. Retrieved 27 April 2014.
  26. ↑ Historic England. "The Falkland Arms Public House, Old Road (1052547)". National Heritage List for England. Retrieved 29 August 2014.
  27. ↑ The Falkland Arms
  28. ↑ The Tew Centre
  29. ↑ Tew Cricket Club

Sources and further reading

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