Introduction
Pilstyes is a Grade II listed village house believed to have been built around 1575. It is arranged as a main house with an attached cottage. (The cottage is let as a self-catering holiday home and we let one double bedded room with an ensuite shower room and one twin bedded room with ensuite bathroom on a bed and breakfast basis in the main house.)
The house has painted brick walls on a tall sandstone plinth, partly tile hung with a roof of mellow Sussex clay tiles and Horsham stone slab slates. The Pilstyes combines many period features such as exposed wall and ceiling oak timbers and leaded light windows to the front elevation. "It is the quintessential English cottage that everyone dreams about".
The Pilstyes is situated in the north end of Lindfield in an enviable position close to all the village amenities. The name The Pilstyes means Pond in a field. The house next to ours is called Roaches after the fish in the pond and the house on the corner of the street is called Spongs which means corner of a field. These names were given to the houses hundreds of years ago probably to houses standing here before the present ones and any trace of its fish, pond and field have long gone.
In fact, the picturesque High Street of Lindfield is well known for its variety of period houses and cottages. The High Street has brick pavements and grass verges (covered with crocus and daffodils in spring) on both sides interspersed with our lovely lime trees, which have been newly pollarded this year. The village amenities include an excellent selection of shops, an historic church, a village pond with swans and ducks and a large common. Promenading up and down the High Street is a pleasurable occupation especially on a warm summer.s afternoon followed by tea in one of the tea rooms.
Even more pleasurable is a early evening stroll followed by a pint in one of the pubs. (There are 5 pubs within easy walking distance with three cooking lunches and suppers.) The shops include butcher, chemists, supermarket, newsagents, bakers, greengrocers, bookshop, violin maker, shoe shop, dress shops, toy shops, pretty present shops, art galleries, florists etc.
