The George And Dragon

The George and Dragon

Public house, formerly a house, located on the south side of Speldhurst Hill facing north-north-west towards the church. The building dates from the late 15th century with major improvements from the late 16th or early 17th century, some 18th-century work, and minor 19th and 20th-century modernisation.

The structure has exposed timber-framing on coursed sandstone footings. The west end and rear are hung with peg-tile. Brick chimney stacks are present, including a late 16th or early 17th-century stack with a sandstone base and brick chimneyshafts. The roof is peg-tile, half-hipped to the right and hipped to the left, tall and steeply pitched.

The building began as a three-room-and-through-passage plan open hall house. It had two-storey bays at each end of the central two-bay hall, which was originally open to the roof and probably heated by an open hearth fire. The right (west) end contained the inner room end with a principal bedchamber or solar above. Passage ran through the lower left-hand side of the hall. The left (east) end was the service end, originally divided by a central axial partition into spaces such as buttery, dairy, and pantry, with another bedchamber above. In the late 16th or early 17th century, the main axial stack was inserted and the hall was floored over, with the lower end probably left unaltered. In the 18th century, the axial partition was knocked out, the end stack was inserted, and the present stair probably dates from this time. The building now has two storeys with attics at each end, plus various 19th and 20th-century service extensions to the rear.

The front elevation is irregular with a 1:1:2 window arrangement. All windows are 19th and 20th-century casements with glazing bars, several iron-framed. The passage front doorway is probably late 19th or early 20th-century with a Tudor arch containing a plank door with coverstrips, flanked by side lights. A contemporary two-storey gabled porch in Tudor style is attached, featuring an outer Tudor arch and timber-framed first floor. The exposed framing shows five uneven bays, including a good deal of early framing, though the gabled end bay to the right appears mostly 19th-century.

Interior: Early carpentry is well-preserved and mostly exposed. Wall framing consists of large scantling timbers with large curving tension braces. The crosswalls at each end of the former hall also feature large curving tension braces. A double doorway, now partly blocked by the 18th-century staircase, provides access from the passage to the former service rooms. Both are Tudor arch doorways with moulded surrounds and sunken spandrels.

Moulded beams at each end of the hall, both with brattished crests, form part of the open hall arrangement. Large scantling joists in the former service end (east end) show evidence of the original service partition in mortises along the underside of the axial beam.

The late medieval roof over the hall features closed trusses at each end. The central open truss has a cambered tie beam with large curving arch braces. A crown post above has chamfered corners with moulded cap and base. Large scantling A-frame common rafter trusses with lap-jointed collars complete the roof structure. The roof is now open, so it cannot be confirmed whether the timbers were smoke-blackened from the original open hearth fire.

When the hall was floored over in the late 16th or early 17th century, the axial beam and joists were chamfered with step stops, as too are the joists over the passage. These arrangements prove that the passage has been this wide since at least the late 16th or early 17th century. Contemporary hall and parlour fireplaces are sandstone with low chamfered Tudor arch lintels. An 18th-century fireplace in the former service end is brick with a curving back and plain oak lintel.

The George and Dragon is a good and well-preserved example of a late medieval hall house with high-quality late 16th or early 17th-century improvements. It forms part of a notable group of listed buildings in the vicinity of the Church of St Mary.