Green Dragon Inn

Green Dragon Inn

Public house located on Shenfield Road, Shenfield. The building is a timber-framed structure with rendered walls and some exposed timber-framing, combined with red brick. The roof is covered in old peg tiles and 20th-century clay tiles. The plan is H-shaped, with a large west cross-wing and a smaller east cross-wing, and later 19th and 20th-century additions to the rear.

The building displays evidence of several distinct construction phases spanning from around 1500 to the 20th century. The earliest phase, dating to circa 1500, was a medieval open hall house with a high-end cross-wing surviving at the east end. Around 1600, the hall walls were raised to accommodate a first floor and a large stack was inserted, probably on the site of the original cross-passage. A stair tower was built at this time to serve both the attic space and first floor. Roughly contemporary with or shortly after this phase, a large new cross-wing was added at the west end with a projecting display gable. In the 19th century, the front was refurbished in keeping with its use as an inn, and a stable block was added at the rear to the east, along with two further rear wings at the centre and west ends. In the 20th century, a rear ground floor addition and front porch with pentice were constructed.

The north front elevation is 2 storeys with partial attics. The roofs rise in three levels from east to west, physically expressing the progressive expansion that occurred from the earliest east cross-wing through the hall to the large west cross-wing. The central 2-window range on the first floor contains two 18th-century sash windows with glazing bars and moulded architraves, one with 4x4 panes and one with 3x4 panes. At ground floor level, a 19th-century doorway sits at the east end with a simple weather hood on shaped brackets; the door has 4 panels with the upper 2 glazed and lower 2 with flush bead-moulded panels. To the west is a flat-roofed 19th-century addition with 2 windows similar to those above, with upper sashes of 4x2 panes and lower sashes now of 2 panes; a similar door is positioned on the west face of this addition. A heavy stack sits on the roof apex towards the west end; this is 17th-century in origin but has been reduced and its top rebuilt. The east cross-wing features a ground floor 19th-century 5-cant bay window, three cants of which have sash windows with bead-moulded architraves and glazing bars of 3x4 panes. On the first floor is a single similar sash window of 4x4 panes. The west cross-wing displays exposed timber-framing, partly original with heavy jowled corner posts showing peg holes for braces, and partly restored with simple vertical studding and a projecting tie-beam. A 20th-century timber-framed porch occupies the ground floor with a 20th-century inner door in Tudor style featuring an upper glazed panel and 3 lower recessed panels. To the east of the porch is an attached pentice roof containing a 20th-century frieze window of 3 metal casements. On the first floor is a 20th-century 3-light casement window with leaded panes. A projecting gable displays a 20th-century triple casement window with glazing bars of 6x3 panes.

The south elevation is irregular, reflecting older building work above later additions. The east cross-wing is flush with the central range and has a first-floor 19th-century sash window with glazing bars of 3x4 panes. The west wing projects outward and features a lower 2-storey 19th-century brick continuation with a first-floor 20th-century French window. A second 19th-century brick rear 2-storey addition aligns with the principal stack. A timber-framed stair projection immediately to the west rises to the attic with a flat roof and a simple 2-light casement window with glazing bars of 2x3 panes at the top level. A later single-storey projection at the west is 20th-century with a simple door featuring upper leaded glazing and a lower boarded panel, and a long 5-casement segmental-headed window with leaded panes. There are 3 similar casement windows, 2 of 2x2 panes and one double of 4x2 panes. At the east end of this range is a 19th-century long gabled block projecting to the south, enclosing an inner court with a lean-to conservatory roof covering 2 windows and 2 doorways. The east end elevation is plain, with the cross-wing roof hipped at the rear and a small external 19th-century stack. A 19th-century yellow brick rear addition projects slightly to the east with a corrugated asbestos roof, parapet, and a blocked segmental-headed window in a projecting north gable end. The west end elevation shows the 17th-century cross-wing with a small external stack rebuilt in the 20th century. The ground floor is now brick with a 5-light casement window with leaded panes and a narrow 2-light casement window at the north end. The 20th-century porch from the north front continues flush with a fixed window with leaded panes. At the south end is a 19th-century brick addition, simple in character, with an external stack and a small 2-light ground floor casement window. A 20th-century flat-roofed extension with a simple 2-light casement window projects deeply to the west.

Internally, the east cross-wing at ground floor level retains an inner front jetty bressumer, now boxed in with the wall below removed. A central truss of a 2-bayed structure has bracket braces to the binding joist. Above on the first floor are central jowled posts and braces to the tie-beam, along with display arched bracing typical of high-end cross-wings, positioned towards the site of the original open hall to the west. A central crown-post in the roof has simple curved 2-way bracing. The central range at ground floor has an inserted ceiling with lamb's-tongue chamfer stops. Most fireplaces of the central stack are blocked or renewed. On the first floor, the original hall wall plate remains at the front behind the first-floor windows, featuring an edge-halved and bridled scarf joint. The west side of the principal stack has a 4-centred arched fireplace with the arch chamfer stopped high on the jambs. The rear stair projection contains a circa 1600 2-light mullioned window with ovolo mouldings, now blocked. The west cross-wing first floor displays internal tension bracing on the front elevation, with similar bracing on the central partition for 2 bays, and a blocked window aperture on the west wall.

The Royal Commission on the Historical Monuments of England noted the stair window and recorded the former existence of 6 grouped diagonal shafts on the central stack, now gone.