Duns Tew is a village about nine miles S of Banbury and 15 miles N of Oxford. The church lies to the centre of the village and consists of a coursed squared marlstone and limestone structure of a chancel, a nave with N aisle, a NE vestry, a S porch and a W tower. The church was largely rebuilt in 1862 by George Gilbert Scott, but the building retains the reset S doorway, the font and some late medieval features.

The Domesday Survey records that in 1066 'Tewa' or 'Teowe' was held by Leofwin of Barton; in 1086 it was under the lordship of Everwin and Wadard of Cogges, being Robert d'Oilly and Robert of Stafford tenants-in-chief. In 1086 also Bishop Gilbert Maminot of Lisieux and Bishop Odo of Bayeux held an estate in Duns Tew. The church was given to Merton Priory before 1198, probably by one of the Tew family. The priory appropriated the church and set up a vicarage by 1292.

The Buildings of England notes that Scott's rebuilding was more elaborate that the original structure.