There is much confusion about the history of the various farms in Beddingham. The farms of Combe, Court House and Preston Court were probably the demesne lands of the manors of, respectively, Beddingham Combe, Beddingham and Preston Beckhelwyn, all part of the Glynde estate, while Cobbe Place Farm was owned by the Gage estate. At various times, and particularly between the mid-nineteenth century and the second world war, the size and composition of these farms varied and smaller farms were created from them.

Little Dene (or Littledene) was one of four houses that could lead to much confusion: Little Dene, Preston House Farm, Little Dene Farmhouse and Preston Court Farm. The first two of these are the same house. Henry Brand in Glyndiana recorded that ‘the estates property in Beddingham was considerably improved in 1866 through an exchange with Lord Gage. I surrendered to Gage about 200 acres in Alciston for an equivalent in Beddingham. After that exchange Preston House Farm was created by forming into one farm all my property in Beddingham, except Preston Court Farm and the small farms at each extremity of the parish – Durham Farm on the west and Balcombe Farm on the east, let to the company of limeburners’. A new house was built for the tenant of the newly created Preston House Farm by the Glynde estate between 1867 and 1869 when the estate accounts show the cost of a new house being built at Preston. The estate accounts for the year ending May 1867 included bills for ‘Preston Farm House building’, as did those of 1868. The accounts for the year ending May 1869 included part payment ‘of New Large Farmhouse for Mr Ellis, Beddingham, built in 1868/9’ and Kelly’s directory, 1878, shows Charles Ellis, farmer, occupying Preston House. On the first edition Ordnance Survey map, 1873, the house now known as Little Dene was clearly named as Preston House. Charles Brand, son of Henry Brand, was tenant of this house and a small farm by 1887 when it was named as Littledene in Kelly’s directory 1887. The new name of the house and farm was taken from a field called Little Denlands, named on the Beddingham tithe map of 1842, near to where the house was built.

Henry Brand, Viscount Hampden, died at Pau, France, on 14 March 1892 and the estate passed to his son Thomas Seymour Brand. The estate was in financial difficulties and heavily mortgaged. To attempt to pay off the mortgages Thomas Brand sold the house, now known as Littledene, and 90 acres of farmland in Beddingham, in May 1893 to his brother Charles Brand for £9500.

The house, farmland and associated cottages became a small private estate, the whole area assuming the name Littledene. Charles Brand died in 1912 and the farm, but not the house, was given up by his widow, his farm stock and implements being sold at auction.

A letter written by Cyril Harbour gives some detail about life at Little Dene in the 1930s from the perspective of one of the servants who worked there. In 1936 Lady Rosabella Brand held a fete in the grounds of the house to raise funds for the Firle Nursing Association.

The Little Dene estate was broken up in 1966 when the Crawley’s sold it in lots at auction. The sale particulars and accompanying map detail the extent of the estate at that time.