Great Tew House

Great Tew House is an early 18th-century country house, significantly extended in 1834 by Fulljames for M.R. Boulton and further altered in 1856 by Fulljames and Waller. The original construction is of marlstone ashlar with limestone dressings, while later additions are of coursed limestone rubble also with limestone dressings. Westmorland slate roofs are punctuated by limestone-ashlar stacks.

The house has a double-depth plan with substantial wing additions. The present entrance front incorporates a five-window ashlar section of the 18th century, three storeys high plus an attic, which retains 12- and 9-pane sashes. However, gables have been added, and the section has been extended on both sides. A single-storey entrance wing to the right features a doorway in a 13th-century style and a shallow dome to the rear. A large, three-storey rubble wing of 1856, set back to the right, has stone mullioned and transomed windows with labels. A small two-storey section to the extreme left of the front has segmental-arched sashes.

The garden front retains the original five-window layout with pilasters, a cornice, and storeybands linked to keyblocks. The ground and first floors have stone-architraved sashes, and three small roof dormers are present. A single-storey library range of 1834, in a 17th-century style, extends to the right and features tall stone mullioned and transomed windows, plus a canted bay with a quatrefoil parapet. A later two-storey range to the left of the garden front has moulded strings and heavy labels over small windows. It is flanked by square towers, one of which terminates the range with a large pointed arch. All the stacks have moulded caps, the later ones with octagonal shafts.

The interior, though not inspected, is noted for its partly early-Victorian decoration in the drawing room and a particularly fine hammer-beam roof in the library, supported by elaborate stone corbels and featuring a marble fireplace, all of which were copied from Toddington Manor in Gloucestershire. The house's development began in the 18th century, initially situated within the village street. Following Mathew Robinson Boulton’s purchase of the estate in 1815, surrounding buildings were demolished, and the house was extended to replace a 16th/17th-century manor house.