The following text is from the original listed building designation:
AYLESFORD
1347/0/10021 ROCHESTER ROAD 31-JAN-05 116 The Old Mill
II House, formerly mill house. Early C17 with mid C17 rear staircase tower, refronted and extended in the C18 and refenestrated in the C20. Timberframed with painted brick or plastered infill, painted brick to front left side and part of the rear elevation with tiled roof with central brick chimneystack. Main building of two storeys and attics three windows. Extension to east of one storey. Three bay lobby entrance plan. EXTERIOR: Front elevation of C18 brick painted. Three C20 casements with leaded lights. C18 central wide moulded architrave to doorcase but C20 door and brick porch with tiled roof. Right side elevation has exposed timberframe with painted brick nogging, box frame with a curved tension brace visible. There is an original bargeboard with carved pendant and the evidence for a jetty to the front elevation, suggesting the building originally had a continuous jetty at the front. The left side elevation is of painted brickwork. The rear elevation has a projecting right side brick bay with hipped roof, a central mid C17 gabled stair tower with exposed frame including curved upright posts, original carved bargeboard and pendant and catslide roof to left. Attached to the east is a one storey C18 or C19 extension , painted brick to the front, mainly painted stone rubble to the rear with tiled roof. INTERIOR: East wall has original door surround with pintle hinge. Ground floor east room has an open fireplace with wooden bressumer and central spine beam and floor joists, the spine beam trimmed, probably to add a plastered ceiling in the C18. Adjoining the fireplace to the south is a wooden step in a cupboard, the remains of the original cupboard stairs. The ground floor west room also has a wide open fireplace with wooden bressumer and ceilling with chamfered spine beam with fillet and stop and a decorative carved post with roll-moulding to west, later trimmed, probably to plaster the wall later. Complete mid C17 winder staircase with octagonal newel post with ogival finial and flat balusters. The first floor has two heated chambers with C17 brick fireplaces with wooden bressumers and ceilings with spine beams and exposed floor joists. Much wall framing is visible. Winder staircase to attics which have a C17 sans purlin roof with later added collars and purlins and a section with staggered purlin roof. HISTORY: Building was originally a mill house to a mill adjoining to the west demolished in the late C19.

In 2004 a watching brief was carried out at the site during the construction of a new extension to the east of the building. No evidence related to the earlier mill building was found but later alterations to the complex were revealed.

From the report: "The earliest deposits across the site consisted of the tail end of an artificial embankment formed across the line of the valley to dam the stream and create a mill pond to the north of the present house. Towards the northeast corner of the site the remains of the millpond's clay lining was encountered sloping into the rear garden, which sits over the area of the now dry millpond. This clay lining had been cut through by a later stone-lined and capped drain/channel that ran alongside a later extension, constructed onto the eastern end of the earlier timber-framed house. This appeared to be some type of water-alleviation channel for the millpond, though the construction of the extension on the eastern end of the earlier mill house included a small projecting annexe to the east, which covered part of the drain's line. Whether this structure originally contained a further smaller wheel that drove lesser machinery associated with other milling machining, or just a water dipping point associated with the formation of a new kitchen in the extension is uncertain. Certainly this feature and the drain/channel appear to have continued into the mid nineteenth century due to the construction of a secondary retaining wall to the north in the early nineteenth century. Originally constructed to retain extra deposits dumped to raise the level of the initial embankment, a section of the wall replaced part of the side wall of the earlier drain/channel, and aided in direction of water into the drain channel.

Along the line of the present mill stream, the owner pointed out the remains of a stone vaulted culvert concealing part of the present stream line. Closer examination of the structure revelaed it to be the well preserved remains of a bridge taking the line of an early trackway, which runs in front of the present mill house, across the line of the stream. This structure would appear to be associated either with the construction of the mill and mill house in the early/mid sventeenth century or earlier. (1)

English Heritage, List of Buildings of Special Architectural or Historic Interest (Map). SKE16160.