Pett Dane

Pett Dane is a timber-framed house probably dating to around 1500, situated in Eastling. It is a former farmstead, with the name possibly deriving from the Anglo-Saxon word 'den' meaning pasture.

The building is constructed of timber-frame on a plinth of rough flints, with some lath and plaster infilling, partly clad in weatherboarding. It has a steeply pitched tiled roof covered in 19th-century tiles with alternate courses of plain and pointed tiles. Two external brick chimneysstacks are present.

The house is a two-storey, two-bay structure with an end jetty. It was possibly originally an open hall, with an external chimneystack added to the north-east in the late 16th or early 17th century. A further external brick chimneystack was added to the west in the early 19th century, and the house was re-roofed in that period.

The south or entrance front displays exposed close-studding with a central full-height bay post, midrail and a curved tension brace to the upper floor near the jetty. The two first-floor windows are 20th-century wooden casements with leaded lights, while the ground-floor windows are late 19th or early 20th-century casements with bracketed hoods. Two original smaller blocked window openings are visible on the first floor, with evidence for two further openings on the north side. There is a 20th-century plank door with wooden hood to the right-hand side. The ground-floor framing around a window adjacent to this suggests the position of the original entrance. The west elevation is mainly covered in weatherboarding, except for part of the ground floor which is early 19th-century brickwork, with a central early 19th-century external brick chimneystack. The jetty survives except where the external chimneystack has been inserted. A curved brace is visible internally on the ground floor, with wooden casements on each floor. The east side displays jowled posts, a central post and studs on the upper floor, visible internally, with original sole plate surviving on the ground floor. A 19th or early 20th-century wooden casement window with hood and brackets is present to the ground floor. At the junction with the later extension stands a large external brick chimneystack of late 16th or early 17th-century date, strengthened at the base in the 20th century with early 19th-century brickwork above the roof ridge. An early 19th-century ledged plank door is incorporated into the later extension. The original north side is now covered by the late 20th-century extension but internally retains the wallplate, soleplate, midrail, midpost, some studs at the western end, a curved brace in the same position as that on the south side, and sockets and shutter grooves for two original windows in the centre of the first floor.

The interior retains early 19th-century floor joists and internal partitions on the ground floor, and two early 19th-century wooden bressumers to the chimneys. A 20th-century winder staircase leads to the upper floor, which retains the original circa 1500 corner posts, wallplates, midrail, bay posts, a number of studs and the central tiebeam. The softwood roof of thin scantling, retaining the marks of lath and plaster, dates to the early 19th century. An early 19th-century cast-iron firegrate is present in the north-eastern corner.

The end jetty, close-studding and curved tension braces suggest a late 15th or early 16th-century date. In the early 19th century the house was clad in weatherboarding and a further chimneystack added to the jettied end. Pett Dane appears on the 1894 Ordnance Survey map with a square footprint, shown with a separate well to the north-west and further outbuildings situated to the north-east and north-west. By the 1897 map some of the outbuildings had been demolished. A large extension was added to the north-west in 1997. This late 20th-century north-eastern extension is not of special interest.