Green Man Inn

Green Man Inn, Cricketers Lane, Herongate

Public house dating from the 17th century with substantial 19th and 20th century additions and alterations. The building is constructed of timber-framing and brick with hipped roofs covered in slate to the front and tile to the rear.

The building comprises a rectangular block facing the street with a parallel rear block of irregular construction. The main west elevation is 2 storeys and 3 bayed, with a timber-framed central section flanked by 20th-century lean-tos at the north and south ends. The upper facade displays 20th-century pargeting above plain rendering to the lower part. All windows on this elevation are 20th-century casements with glazing bars. The ground floor central triple window comprises lights of 2x4, 4x4 and 2x4 panes, with triple windows of 2x4, 2x4 and 2x4 panes on each side. The first floor has three windows, each of 4x4 panes. A tall chimney stack emerges from the roof pitch. The north lean-to contains a 20th-century flat-roofed ground-floor extension set back from the main facade, with a window of 2x4 panes and a tall stack on the north side. Access is provided by 20th-century boarded doors in the north out-shut and at the south end of the centre block. The south lean-to has a similar 4x4 pane window.

The irregular rear (east) elevation comprises several elements. A 19th-century 2-storey wing in yellow brick with a hipped clay-tiled roof contains a segment-headed cellar doorway with boarded double doors on the ground floor and a 19th-century sash window of 2x2 panes (with renewed sashes) on the first floor, with a 19th-century stack to the south side. To the north, the clay-tiled roof of the rear block descends to a 19th-century yellow brick wall at ground floor level, which features a segment-headed window and two 20th-century casements, with an adjacent 20th-century door and a 2x2 casement window beneath a single segment-headed opening. The door has upper glazing and a recessed lower panel. A stack sits at the roof apex. At the south end of the range stands a 19th-century ground-floor unit in red brick with a high peg-tiled roof, containing a single 19th-century 3-light casement window with a beaded frame, each light comprising 2 panes. A simple 20th-century ground-floor extension in yellow brick with clay tiles and two 20th-century sash windows occupies the southern end.

The south end elevation of the front block features a 20th-century ground-floor 3-cant bay window with mullion and transom lights containing leaded stained glass. To the east, a 20th-century addition in rendered yellow brick with a clay-tiled roof includes a door with upper glazing of 2x3 panes and two simple casement windows. The north elevation comprises a single-storey 20th-century rendered extension with a central stack and two windows with mullion and transom lights featuring leaded stained glass, matching those on the south end. To the east lies a narrow yard with weatherboarded walls containing two 19th-century windows with bead decoration and a 20th-century 3-light window with leaded stained glass similar to the south end bay window.

The interior has been largely reworked, but the central rear wing, encased in 19th-century yellow brick, preserves a 17th-century timber-framed core featuring lamb's tongue chamfer stopped binding joists, primary bracing and a face-halved and bladed scarf joint. This block, together with the rebuilt brick unit on the north side, appears to retain the cross-wing and hall elements of an H-plan hall house, with the northern end cross-wing forming No. 13. A photograph from 1915 shows the west front without the north and south lean-tos, which were probably added circa 1920 and are clearly visible in a photograph from 1945. The Green Man Inn forms part of a group with Nos. 13–29 odd.