Building record 1084700000 - DRAGON FARM, 121 BICESTER ROAD

Grade II. Medieval, C17 and C18. Four bays. Bay nearest road is early C18, 2 storeys and attic, coursed rubble stone, rendered gable, coved eaves of moulded timber and plaster, tiled roof. Gable end has one 3-light leaded casement to each floor. East elevation has 2 casements to each floor, 2-light on left, 3-light on right, timber on ground floor, old leaded glazing on first floor with original glass in left hand window. Central 2 bays medieval and later with crucks. Two storey, timber-framed with plaster and brick infill, thatched roof, continuing over end bay. Panelled oak to door to left, 3-light casement on right, 2 upper casements in thatch, 3-light to left, one-light to right. End bay C17, possibly a brewhouse. Rubble stone to ground floor, timber-frame above with brick infill, some herringbone, 3-light casement to ground floor. Stone gable wall with large projecting stone chimney stack with tiled offset on west side. Small thatched lean-to to right, small leaded upper window to left. West elevation has glazed door to centre, 3-light casements each side, 2-light casement in thatch. Half glazed door in rear bay and 6-pane first floor window. Interior of house has 2 good cruck trusses with blades truncated above collars. Beams of floor inserted into former open hall appear to be C16/17. Barn on road frontage attached to house by cart entry. Probably early C19, stone with brick dressings, weatherboarded upper part. Concrete tiles replacing thatch, hipped at west end. Road front has a modern 3-light swept dormer over the cart entrance, rear elevation has 3 similar 4-light dormers. Interior of barn has queen strut trusses. Stone boundary wall and low thatched outbuilding attached to No 119 [CASS 1084600000] (B1).
Dendro-dating obtains felling date of 1564 for timber from cruck frame (B2, B3).
Historic building recording carried out in January 1989 and 1990 suggests that the building originated as a two or possibly three-bay cruck-framed building with upper floors above, and with a smoke hood in the hall. Three cruck trusses survive, all with truncated apexes ('type W'), with cranked collars, tiebeams and transverse beams carrying axial beams, morticed for the floor joists. Truss 1 is weathered on the south side and the roof above is half-hipped, so was clearly at the end of the original building. Truss 1 is oak and strongly elbowed, Truss 2 is elm and more gently curved, Truss 3 is partly obscured by a later extension, but the absence of a matching half-hip in the roof suggests that the building may have continued beyond Truss 3. In the 17th century the house was extended to the north by a 2-storey stone-built parlour and chamber block with attic above and a newel staircase; the smoke hood was probably replaced by a fireplace at this time. Probably in the 18th century a service bay with large brick chimney stack and bread oven was added to the south end of the house. Dendro-dating gave a felling date range of 1551-1559 for three samples from Trusses 1 and 2. The landholding can be traced as far back as 1536 from documentary references but the house was presumably built by Christopher Greening who held the land as a tenant of the Dormer manor from 1544 to 1582. From 1832 to at least 1910 the building was a beer house known variously as the Saint George and Dragon, George and Dragon or Green Dragon. See report for detail (B4).