Description

TQ 67 41 BRENCHLEY PETTERIDGE LANE, BRENCHLEY

15/185 Petteridge Place

II

Large house. Probably late 1860s, judging from the detail although it,is said
to have been erected in 1880 by a Mr Philpott, a London businessman (A
Victorian Pictorial Record of Brenchley and Matfield (n.d., c.1988); minor C20
alterations. Rock-faced snecked rubble, said to have been brought from
Boughton Monchelsea (information from the owner) with red brick banding and
detail and yellow sandstone dressings; peg-tile roof; stone stacks with
octagonal chimney pots. High Victorian Gothic.

Plan: The house faces west and is roofed on a north south axis with a
crosswing at the south end and another in the centre. Irregular,
approximately retangular plan, the principal rooms to the south, service wing
to the north. Entrance on the west side into a large entrance hall with the
principal stair rising from it to the north and a corridor to the service
wing. The 4 principal rooms (now 3) opened off the entrance hall; library
faing west, principal living room facing south in the south east corner,
dining room facing east. There was formerly a small unheated room between the
dining and principal living room, this has been absorbed into the living room.
The service wing includes a service stair, some of the partitions have been
altered in the C20.

Exterior: 2 storeys. Long asymmetrical 7:4 entrance (west) elevation, the 7
windows to the service wing. Hipped roofs. Most of the windows 4-pane plate
glass sashes, probably original. The main block has 2 gables to the front,
the left hand gable including the stair window. Projecting porch between the
gables with a parapet carved with flowers in sunk roundels. Moulded 2-centred
arched outer doorway with shafts with carved capitals; trefoil-headed sash
window to the left return. The porch is floored with C19 tiles; original 2-
leaf front door, the upper panels glazed with iron work in the heads. Various
Gothic style windows to the main block, the most impressive is the large 2-
light stair window, the lights divided by a carved shaft, each light with an
arched sunk panel with bands of pink and yellow stone. A plate tracery
roundel above is framed by similar banded stonework. 2-light square-headed
window to ground floor right, the light divided by a shaft with a carved
capital. The first floor window above has a similar shaft and arched sunk
panels above with polychromatic banded borders and brick infill. Bulls eye
gable window with a stone surround. The service wing is less elaborate with
one gable to the front and, alongside to the right, a door with fielded
panels, the top panels glazed. Asymmetrical 6-window rear (east) elevation,
the gable end of the left hand (south) crosswing blind with a projecting
stack, the second crosswing gable elaborately treated with a ground floor
canted bay with a parapet and, above it on the first floor, a 2-light window,
the light divided by a shaft with a carved capital. A large rounded hoodmould
with carved label stops above the window frames a panel of brick infill laid
in a herringbone pattern with a stone quatrefoil in the centre carved with a
shield. Alongside the canted bay, to the right, a C20 glazed door with an
overlight. 4-pane plate glass sash windows to the rest of the elevation. The
right (south) return of the house has a 2-storey canted bay to the right with
a pyramidal roof with a finial. Ground floor windows tall plate glass sashes.
4-pane sashes to the first floor.

Interior: Many original features survive. The stair has turned balusters and
a wreathed mahogany handrail with a decorated cast iron newel. The stair hall
is divided from the entrance hall by a round-headed arch supported on short
shafts with carved capitals. Similar arch on the first floor landing. The
principal living room has an C18 style chimney-piece with inlaid decoration
and decorated plaster cornices, the latter may be C20 additions. The windows
in the canted bay preserve original shutters, original vertical sliding
shutters to the small unheated room. The dining room has a late C19/early C20
Baroque style timber chimney-piece and unusual plaster ceiling cornice with
whorl and arrowhead mouldings. The library has a fine set of fixed shelves of
about 1910, incorporating a clock; timber chimney-piece and shutters. The
first floor includes plainer timber chimney-pieces and some original iron
grates.

Roof: Timbers of large scantling, partly tie beam, queen post and collar
construction, the south end crosswing with king posts with straight down
braces, fixed with bolts. The roof is boarded over the rafters.

An unspoiled large Victorian house with good interior features.

Listing NGR: TQ6715441677

External Links

• Historic England Listing
• Wikidata Q26553763

External links are from the relevant listing authority and, where applicable, Wikidata. Wikidata IDs may be related buildings as well as this specific building. If you want to add or update a link, you will need to do so by editing the Wikidata entry.

Recommended Books

• 
  Staffordshire (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  London 1: The City of London: City of London v. 1 (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Oxfordshire (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Essex: Buildings of England Series (Buildings of England) (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  [(Shropshire)] [By (author) Nikolaus Pevsner] published on (January, 1958)
• 
  Development and Design of Heritage Sensitive Sites: Strategies for Listed Buildings and Conservation Areas