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The Green Dragon in Haddenham has a long history as a public house and has been traced back to 1754 when it was kept by Samuel Morley.
The building is Grade II listed and dates from the 18th Century. Built of coarse rubble stone with brick dressings, the building used to have an arched entrance to the yard, now the car park entrance, creating speculation that it was once a coaching inn.
During his tour of Buckinghamshire, Nikolaus Pevsner described the Green Dragon as, “... an eighteenth century front of three bays, stone with brick dressings, and a nice wrought iron sign”.
The Green Dragon was used as a manorial court; the practice of the Court Baron ran up until 1925 and was usually held around the middle of November. In the days running up to the court, a notice was pinned to the front door announcing the date and time of the hearings.
A jury represented the interests of both the lord and the common tenants and they assembled in a room together with the lord's steward and his bailiff; the wooden panelling in this room still exists.
The Green Dragon has also been used as the location for auctions of local lands and properties – copies of some sale posters are displ ayed in the bar.
A key feature on any pub is its sign; the current sign is a digitally re-mastered copy of its predecessor which is still held on site.
The origin of pub signs goes back to the Romans when vine leaves would be hung outside the premises to show that they sold wine – these would have been substituted with evergreen bushes in Britain’s climate.
The Green Dragon re-opened in July 2008 as a classic, country pub. A goal was set to provide a friendly, welcoming haven for locals and visitors alike - it is hoped that the tradition of the great, British pub will live on here for some time yet.
The French writer Hilaire Belloc who spent most of his life in Britain seemed to have understood this idea when he wrote, “When you have lost your inns drown your empty selves, for you will have lost the last of England”. |
