16/06/2026
When 68-year-old landlord Arthur Higgins decided to tear out the ugly 1970s plasterboard in his pub’s back dining room, he expected to find damp issues, not a 3-ton medieval masterpiece.
The Smugglers Inn had been in Arthur’s family for three generations, but this monumental hand-carved stone fireplace had been deliberately bricked up and forgotten for over half a century.
The magnificent European dragon, featuring sweeping bat-like wings that frame the hearth and an arched horned neck forming the mantel, was built by hand using local heavy granite. Tool marks, rough mortar seams, and decades of authentic soot are still deeply ingrained in the heavy carved scales.
"My granddad always muttered about the pub's hidden guardian when I was a lad, but I thought it was just the cider talking," Arthur laughed, brushing thick plaster dust off the tapering stone tail. "Turns out this incredible piece of local heritage was hiding right behind the dartboard."
Historians believe a retired master mason spent nearly a decade carving the beast in the late 1800s, leaving a permanent legacy that the village almost lost entirely to a cheap renovation.
Arthur says the retro wallpaper is going straight in the skip, but the dragon is staying forever. 🐉
