7977

 

II  

Designated  

30/03/1983  

16/12/2005  

The Dragon Hotel  

 

Powys  

Montgomery  

Montgomery  

 

322181  

296425  

 

Situated on S side of sloping Market Square.  

Commercial  

 

Building of C16 origin, refronted and altered in late C18 or early C19 and then clad in mock timber-framing in later C19 (before 1893). Present four-bay facade is basically late Georgian as old photographs show a two-storey four-bay stuccoed front with deep-eaved roof, hipped at the corner, basically as now, but without the gable and dormers. It was the principal coaching inn, owned by the Powis estate, first recorded in 1770, and as the Green Dragon by John Byng in his tour of 1784. It was called the Dragon in an 1858-9 directory but the Green Dragon in one of 1880. The interior retains a fireplace in NE room and moulded beams in NW room of C16 date, of a quality not found elsewhere in the town, and as they are to each side of the carriageway to the rear yard, they suggest a C16 building on a remarkably large scale. Recorded landlords include Richard Jones 1770-4, Thomas Clout 1774-90, William Read c1811, Edward Read 1822-50, Thomas Davies c1858-9, Martha Wood 1868-74, Edward Watkin 1878-93, G.J. Clipston 1895-1907, and C.P. Davies 1912-41.Sold by the Powis estate in 1975.  

Hotel, stuccoed with applied C19 timbering above the ground floor, extending up into added late C19 gable to left and three gabled large dormers. Slate roof hipped to left corner and with right end brick stack. Gable to left and three dormers have overhanging verges. Two storeys and attic, with cellar, a wide band of windowless mock framing between first floor windows and eaves. Four bays. Broad gabled bay to left has triple sash of 4-12-4 panes to ground floor and of 3-9-3 panes to first floor and a pair of 6-pane sashes in gable. The first floor then has three hornless 9-pane sashes over respectively, a wide carriageway with chamfered jambs and billet-moulded lintel; a big canted bay window with hipped slate roof and three horned 12-pane sashes; a modern window with hopper top light. Narrow E return has a broad cambered-headed basement doorway with double ledged doors and long hinges, another gabled C19 dormer. Brick S end stack on massive rendered square external chimneybreast, visible from rear court of Braemar, Kerry St. Rear court flanked by two long wings, the SW one raised on bank with N end adjoining but set back from right end of main facade. Rubble stone, with hipped roof at N end over leaded first floor three-light with top-lights. Range runs back in two sections, rear W wall of stone and then of brick. Front to court has modern render, two narrow horned sash windows with glazing bars on first floor, to former assembly room, over a modern garage entry, a half-glazed modern door and a hipped porch. Broad projecting gable on rear left of main range, in painted stucco with modern windows, and rear right has one bay of renewed windows over C20 additions at ground floor. To right, at right angles, one-bay rear wing has W big mock timbered gable and the massive S end chimney with brick stack. Attached are three SE rear wings. The first has two large modern dormers and rendered front with late C19 porch with hipped slate roof, the second set back and lower is obscured by a big C20 conservatory but the upper floor has some square-framed timbering and a big late C19 or C20 dormer on eaves. Taller two-storey painted brick S end block with C20 casement windows. The rear of these ranges, seen from rear yard of Braemar, Kerry St, shows a complex building history. The first is of red brick and rubble stone mixed to left, red brick to right, two storeys on high base. Four first floor horned sashes, 9-pane to left, shorter 6-pane to right, over three cambered-headed 12-pane sashes. Second lower range has heavy C17 square framing over rubble high plinth. Three by seven panels with some angle braces in top panels, red brick infill to four-panel section to right, plaster to three-panel left part which has a small rendered gable above with modern window. Windowless rendered rear wall to third building.  

Main entrance is into former through passage, now enclosed with modern glazed doors. Brick walls, six-panel fielded-panelled doors, stone cobbled setts. NW dining-room made from two rooms joined together has ornately reeded and stopped spine beam and joists of the late C16 in the W half. The NE room, has bar partly concealing a large S wall fireplace with stone jambs and fine late C16 moulded lintel, the edge mouldings hollow/ fillet/ ogee, run out each end, and the face with two scribed fillets. Plaster ceiling has three deep rectangular panels with heavy mouldings of early C18 date. Panelled early C19 shutters to tripartite sash. Rest of interior not inspected.  

Included for its special historic interest as a large coaching inn of C16 origins, retainng significant elements of this date including a good fireplace and moulded beams. Interesting sequence of development with Georgian and later C19 phases, all contributing to its architectural character.