Here be...

There is a thatched house in our village with squirrels on the ridge of the roof. Not the real kind: squirrels made of straw by an artisan thatcher. In Banbury, there is a thatched pub called the Three Pigeons, with guess what

Decorated thatch like this is documented back to the 17th century, but my guess is that has happened since roofs were ever thatched. To identify the owner, to identify the thatcher, or maybe for more mystical reasons: sometimes the decoration is a cross. There was a country belief that the decorations were to distract witches and stop them entering the house. Traditional thatched hay ricks were sometimes similarly decorated - to stamp ownership of the hay, or as fire insurance?

In the 18th and early 19th century, Britain began to exchange goods and ideas on a large scale with China. There was a huge fashion among the upper classes for 'Chinoiserie' - styles of clothing, room decoration and architecture that were an amalgam of European and Oriental styles - or, if you were cynical, an inauthentic pastiche and caricature of Chinese craft. Chinese imperial roofs, of course, are famously decorated along the ridges, especially with dragons

I don't know if that is where the inspiration for these dragon finials came from. Clay tile technology was advancing rapidly during the same period, but dragons occur independently in European mythology. The Victorians certainly decorated rooves with dragon ridge-tiles like this, but there is no guessing the age of this one - it's still possible to buy new ones of these today. I can't imagine the buildings most recent refurbishment as Stratford-upon-Avon Job Centre is when it (they - there are two of them) were added, but the building was a pub in the 19th century, and it's possible they have survived since then

Symbolic decorations on buildings are present in most cultures: the Mezuzah on the doorpost of Jewish homes, inscribed with or containing a script from Deuteronomy; a circular 'eye' icon, hung beside arabic doorways to ward off the 'evil eye'; the gargoyles on ancient churches that owe more to a pre-Christian spirituality than any biblical symbolism; 'lucky' horseshoes on our door lintels, with the gap at the top to 'hold the luck' for the residents. I don't know if there is any symbolism ascribed to these dragon finials, but good fortune to anyone looking for a job in Stratford