Petteridge Place

Petteridge Place

Large house, probably dating from the late 1860s, though local tradition records it was built in 1880 by Mr Philpott, a London businessman. The building has undergone minor alterations in the 20th century. It is constructed of rock-faced snecked rubble said to have been brought from Boughton Monchelsea, with red brick banding and details, and yellow sandstone dressings. The roof is of peg-tiles and there are stone stacks with octagonal chimney pots. The style is High Victorian Gothic.

The house faces west and is roofed on a north-south axis with a crosswing at the south end and another in the centre, creating an irregular approximately rectangular plan. The principal rooms are positioned to the south with a service wing to the north. The entrance on the west side leads into a large entrance hall from which the principal stair rises to the north and a corridor extends to the service wing. Four principal rooms (now three) opened off the entrance hall: a library facing west, a principal living room in the south-east corner facing south, and a dining room facing east. A small unheated room that formerly stood between the dining and principal living rooms has been absorbed into the living room. The service wing contains a service stair, and some of its partitions have been altered in the 20th century.

The exterior is of two storeys. The long asymmetrical entrance elevation facing west has seven windows to the service wing and four to the main block, with hipped roofs. Most windows are four-pane plate glass sashes, probably original. The main block features two gables to the front, with the left-hand gable containing the stair window. Between the gables is a projecting porch with a parapet carved with flowers in sunk roundels. The porch has a moulded two-centred arched outer doorway with shafts bearing carved capitals and is floored with 19th-century tiles. The original two-leaf front door has upper panels glazed with ironwork in the heads. To the left return of the porch is a trefoil-headed sash window.

The main block displays various Gothic-style windows. The most impressive is the large two-light stair window, with lights divided by a carved shaft, each light containing an arched sunk panel with bands of pink and yellow stone. Above this is a plate tracery roundel framed by similar banded stonework. A two-light square-headed ground floor window to the right has lights divided by a shaft with a carved capital. The first-floor window above features a similar shaft and arched sunk panels with polychromatic banded borders and brick infill. A bulls-eye gable window has a stone surround. The service wing is less elaborate, with one gable to the front and a fielded-panel door alongside to the right, with the top panels glazed.

The asymmetrical rear elevation facing east has six windows. The gable end of the left-hand south crosswing is blind with a projecting stack. The second crosswing gable is elaborately treated with a ground-floor canted bay topped by a parapet, and above it on the first floor is a two-light window with lights divided by a shaft bearing a carved capital. A large rounded hoodmould with carved label stops 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 is a 20th-century glazed door with an overlight. Four-pane plate glass sash windows feature in the rest of this elevation. The south return of the house has a two-storey canted bay to the right with a pyramidal roof and finial. The ground-floor windows are tall plate glass sashes, while four-pane sashes light the first floor.

Internally, 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, with a similar arch on the first-floor landing. The principal living room contains an 18th-century style chimney-piece with inlaid decoration and decorated plaster cornices, the latter possibly being 20th-century additions. The windows in the canted bay preserve original shutters, and original vertical sliding shutters remain to the small unheated room. The dining room has a late 19th-century or early 20th-century Baroque-style timber chimney-piece and an unusual plaster ceiling cornice with whorl and arrowhead mouldings. The library contains a fine set of fixed shelves dating from about 1910, incorporating a clock, along with a timber chimney-piece and shutters. The first floor includes plainer timber chimney-pieces and some original iron grates.

The roof timbers are of large scantling, partly employing tie beam, queen post and collar construction. The south-end crosswing features king posts with straight down braces, fixed with bolts. The roof is boarded over the rafters.

This is an unspoiled large Victorian house with good interior features.