Great Tew

Soho Farmhouse: can you visit?

No, not without a member. Soho House's own guide, dated August 2024, says 'To visit for the day, you need to be a Soho House member', and a member may bring up to three guests to eat, drink and look round. So do not drive out hoping to look round or book lunch.

Staying is less clear than it should be. The same guide says 'To stay at Soho Farmhouse, you need to have a Soho House or Soho Friends membership'. Soho House's Farmhouse bedrooms page (opens in a new tab) says only that members and Soho Friends book at reduced rates, and another of its pages has suggested non-members can stay. Treat it as members only, and ask reservations on 01608 691000 if you hope otherwise. In January 2026 the company put it at 114 bedrooms on 100 acres, at the southern end of the estate. The village itself is a separate place, open to anyone, and the Falkland Arms takes no membership card. Our guide to Soho Farmhouse sets out what each source says and what it costs.

Is Great Tew in the Cotswolds?

Not officially. Natural England's map of the Cotswolds National Landscape stops more than 3 miles short of the village, while Chipping Norton is inside it. Many guides, and the estate, still speak of Cotswold country, which is fair as a description of the hills and wrong as a designation. Our page on what counts as the Cotswolds around Banbury sets out the line.

The stone explains the difference. The Victoria County History puts the south of the parish on Great Oolite limestone, the Cotswolds' own rock, and the north on Middle Lias ironstone, which is what the cottages are made of. It is the same belt as Hook Norton and the villages round Banbury, and our story on ironstone and Hornton stone follows it.

The cottages and St Michael's

The cottages are the point of Great Tew, and they are homes. The estate owns and lets them, giving preference to families who live or work locally, so look from the road and leave the gardens alone. They sit on a north-facing slope in separate groups, because streets were closed in 1818 and again in 1855, and the cottages were rebuilt or renovated from 1819. The roofs are thatch or stone slate, and many front gardens are edged in box.

Much of what looks seventeenth-century is nineteenth-century renovation by the Boulton family in the traditional style, which makes the older houses hard to date. The historians of the county single out a datestone of 1680 on a cottage in the Square as authentic. The stone is still dug here: the estate sells Great Tew Ironstone from its own quarry, enlarged in 2000 for outside buyers.

St Michael and All Angels stands alone beyond the village, reached along New Road on the estate's map. It is listed Grade I, with work from the late twelfth to the fifteenth century, and Thomas Rickman restored it in 1827. We could not find published opening hours, so treat the inside as a bonus.

A morning in Great Tew

Park above the Falkland Arms and walk down into the Square first, before anything else. From there the estate's Great Tew Park Walk is the natural short loop: east along the track from the Square, down the side of the park, then back along the road and up New Road past the turning for the church. That brings you to the pub or the café for lunch without retracing a step. Add the longer Golden Valley Walk if you have the legs and the weather.

Walks from Great Tew

The Great Tew Estate publishes three walks (opens in a new tab) as free PDF maps, all starting by the green. The maps show the route but give no distance, stiles or surface, so allow time and wear boots. The Golden Valley Walk is a loop through the fields north-east of the village. The Great Tew Park Walk circles the park and is the shortest of the three. The Little Tew Walk heads south-west to Little Tew, crosses the B4022, and returns past Tracy Barn and the New Garden, turning back just north of Soho Farmhouse.

Food and drink

The Falkland Arms on The Green is the village pub, a Wadworth house with seven en-suite rooms. The building is listed Grade II. It describes itself as sixteenth century and lists itself in the CAMRA Good Beer Guide 2027. In November 2026 the kitchen served from noon to 2.30pm and 5.30pm to 8.30pm on weekdays, with slightly longer lunches at weekends and an early finish at 7.30pm on Sundays. The bar stays open through the afternoon, the kitchen does not, so time your walk around it.

Quince and Clover runs a café in the Old Post Office, a few doors along, serving breakfast, brunch, lunch and its own ice cream. Its website gives no hours, so do not rely on it for an early start. For a wider choice, see our pubs near Banbury.

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When to come

Any season works, because this is a village of buildings and field paths rather than a garden with a flowering date. Weekdays suit it best, since the estate is a working one with people living in it, and the kitchen hours above matter more than the calendar. The only bus runs on Wednesdays and is timed for villagers going to Chipping Norton, so plan on a car or a taxi. Combine it with Hook Norton's brewery or the Rollright Stones to fill a day.

Over the border

Great Tew's nearest neighbours on our sister site, Cotswolds Info, make good second stops. Charlbury, about 6 miles south, is the Evenlode valley's small town with a Cotswold Line station. Woodstock, about 8 miles south-east, is the town at Blenheim's gates. Kingham, about 9 miles west, is the Evenlode village with the station for the Daylesford end of the Cotswolds.