The histories of Glynde Forge and Forge Cottage, both owned by the Glynde Estate, are closely linjed for most of the twentieth century. The old forge at Glynde, built in 1801, was over one hundred years old when it was photographed in a dilapidated state by Tom Pickard sometime between 1904 and 1907. From 1767 to 1916 Glynde Forge had been worked by the Taylor family of blacksmiths. Near the end of their tenure, in 1907, the Glynde Estate demolished the old forge at Glynde and built a new one designed on the forge that stood at Penshurst in Kent.

Apart from the glass in the windows, the forge was built entirely from materials sourced on land owned by the estate.

The first occupier of the new forge was William Taylor, who left Glynde in 1916 due to ill-health, and moved to Seaford. This severed his family's links with the village that went back to the early eighteenth century.

The business at the forge was then taken over by George Dabson, who also ran a blacksmith and wheelwright's business at Firle. While Dabson ran the business from Firle, Thomas Reed lived at Forge Cottage and worked the forge at Glynde. George Dabson died in 1923 at the age of 61, but his wife, Rose, carried on the business at both Firle and Glynde with a man named Elliott, with Thomas Reed still working for them at Glynde.

Dabson and Elliott's partnership appears to have lasted until about 1930 when Kelly's Directory listed only Rose Dabson as running Glynde Forge, with no listing for a blacksmith at Firle.

By 1932 Reginald George Hecks, farmer at New House Farm, Firle, had taken over the forge at Glynde and installed Reg Pocock as the 'general smith', living at Forge Cottage. Reg would remain the blacksmith at Glynde, carrying on the business alone after the war, with Wally Best as his assistant blacksmith. Towards the end of Reg's life the business more or less ceased to operate, but he continued to live at Forge Cottage until his death in 1970. The forge then fell idle until Graham Baker, a farrier, moved into Forge Cottage in 1981. He and his family remained at Glynde until about 1996 when, for the first time in its existence, the forge was leased by the estate separately from Forge Cottage.

Terry Tyhurst became the new blacksmith, specialising in weather vanes and ironwork benches. Terry also made long-bows and restored vintage tractors, which attracted a lot of visitors to the forge, before retiring and leaving the forge in 2016.