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