Stream Cottage is one of the oldest houses in Glynde parish. In 1556 John Coparnet, son and heir of Thomas Coparnet of Glynde, sold a messuageHouse or dwelling,
inc. outbuildings &
orchard, courtyard
or gardens and adjoining garden in Glynde (abutting south on the land of Walter Preston, north on the garden of Isabelle att Parke, east on a meadow called Stonewell and west on the highway from Glynde to Ashton in Ringmer) to William Hencoke of Glynde.

The sale included 3 rods of land abutting north on the garden of Geoffrey Fenne, east on the land of Robert Wood, west on the highway from Glynde to Ashton and, presumably, south on the messuageHouse or dwelling,
inc. outbuildings &
orchard, courtyard
or gardens and garden. The property passed to William Hencoke’s son Robert in 1605, by which time all the land surrounding the house and garden was owned by Harbert Morley, owner of the Glynde estate, and the house and garden was bought by Robert Morley, Harbert’s half brother and then owner of the estate, from Robert Hencot of Pevensey, shoemaker, and Francis Hensot of Brighton, butcher, in 1612.

The reason for supposing the house that belonged to the Hencokes was the same one that is now Stream Cottage is that by the time of the Glynde tithe map in 1838 the house and garden were occupied by Thomas Saunders the head keeper on the estate. The house and garden occupied 1 rod 28 perches and the field to the north comprised 3 acres 6 perches, a size very similar to the description of the Hencoke’s land. Also the house abuts to Moor Lane, the road leading from Glynde to Ashton, and the field to the south and east of the house was known as Stone Croft in 1838, probably a corruption of the Stonewell on the deed of 1556. The house ceased to be the keeper’s cottage when the new gamekeeper’s house was built in Glynde Park in the 1850s. Since that date the house was usually occupied by the family of one of the workers on Glyndebourne Farm.