Old Wilsley

Old Wilsley is a Wealden hall-house and cloth hall, now a house, dating to the late 14th century and early 15th century. It has been altered in the 16th and later 17th centuries, and re-clad in the 19th century with further alterations and extensions in the early 20th century. The building is timber framed, with a red brick plinth, sandstone on the ground floor under the left gable, and plastering elsewhere, with exposed close studding in the centre. It is jettied over the ground and first floors, with a dragon-beam to the right, and has return gables to the left and right. It has a plain tiled hipped roof with bracketed eaves in the centre, and lower return gables to the left and right. There is a main stack behind the ridge of the main roof, and end stacks.

The house has two storeys with attics in the gables. A two-storey bay window is located to the right of the centre recess, with windows on both floors. The fenestration is irregular, with seven windows on the first floor and five on the ground floor, featuring casements. Late 17th-century cross windows are located under the gables, with the exception of the ground floor to the right, which features the bay window. Around 1600 transom and mullion windows are on other parts of the building. An arched doorway is to the left of the recess, with a boarded and ribbed door in a Tudor-arched moulded surround. The main entrance is now in the left end. Large early 20th-century extensions are present to the rear, within the angle formed by the original former kitchen wing, creating a small internal courtyard.

The interior features a very substantial timber frame. The dining room contains a mid-20th-century decorated Tudor-arched fireplace, a heavily moulded ceiling inserted over the ground floor of the former hall, an embattled dais beam with rosette carved decoration, 16th-century panelling including plank and muntin at the dais end, and a 16th-century doorcase carved with atlantes at capital level. A room at the lower end has fielded panelling with a dado railing, painted with twelve landscape scenes, including depictions of dogs coursing in panels below the dado rail, and a marbled wooden bolection mould fire surround. The kitchen (beyond the dais and stair) has a wide fireplace with sandstone cheeks and a giant bressummer, late 16th-century panelling, and an 18th-century mantel shelf. A wheel under the eaves on the outside wall was used for a dog-powered spit. A bedroom in the upper part of the former hall has a crown post collar purlin roof, with a moulded octagonal crown post on the hall truss, and very heavily jowled posts. Ovolo mouldings are on the frames of the windows. Close studding is on the end walls with curved braces above. The former solar has late 16th-century panelling and a late 17th-century fireplace, along with some engraved glass.