Unstead Manor

Unstead Manor is a timber-framed manor house with a 14th-century hall at its core, extended in the 16th century with a cross wing to the left, and refronted in the 19th century. The building stands on Trunley Heath Road in Shalford.

The house is timber-framed with whitewashed rendered infill to the gable end of the cross wing and brick infill in red, blue and brown to the remainder. It is roofed with plain tiles to the front and Horsham stone slabs to the rear of the cross wing. The plan is T-shaped with the cross wing projecting to the left. The building rises to two storeys with an attic in the gable, featuring a double jetty to the cross wing and leaded attic windows.

The cross wing is marked by two large 16th-century external stacks to the left side, one crow-stepped with a corbelled and ribbed shaft, the other with plain and corbelled shaft. Large square stacks rise to the ridge at the rear and centre.

The cross wing displays a projecting 5-light mullioned and transomed first floor window on braces and a projecting 5-light ground floor casement on braces. Close-studding to the ground floor includes a blocked original opening. The hall features two 3-light diamond-pane mullioned casements on the first floor to the right, and two on the ground floor. A heavy oak plank door set in a roll-moulded surround with thick arched head is sheltered by a gabled brick and weatherboarded porch on a sandstone plinth. A single-storey extension extends to the right end. The right-hand return front has a tile-hung gable end to the left with a projecting timber-framed range set back to the right, flanked by two first floor casements and doors.

The rear of the cross wing is constructed of stone rubble.

The interior contains a two-bay open hall with one bay open to the roof, featuring an octagonal crown post with four head braces, curved and chamfered spine beams, and chamfered arched braces. A moulded dais beam runs to the rear of the hall, with two further moulded spine beams and chamfered floor joists. The Jacobean parlour is panelled with a moulded spine beam. The principal bedroom on the first floor has an open fireplace with a wooden bressumer and an early 17th-century cupboard surround with an early 19th-century pine door. An adjoining room has a 19th-century leaded light window. Another first-floor room contains an early 17th-century plastered four-centred arched fireplace with a moulded beam above. The cross wing roof structure features through purlins, curved wind braces, and a collar beam.