The village malthouse was built by John Willard sometime before 1778. William Wisdom bought the malthouse, along with Pear Tree Cottage, in 1788 and sold it to Glynde estate in 1815. John Newnham was the occupier from 1815-1835

No 2 Malthouse served as the village police house from at least as early as 1871 when Edwin Olive, aged 36 and born in Mayfield, was the village ‘bobby’. In 1881 Henry Willard, aged 29 and born in Mayfield was the village policeman, living there with his wife Fanny and their five children.

From at least 1925 Harry Burgess was living at number 3 Malthouse with his wife Jessie Rosina. Harry had been born in Alciston in 1877, the son of Godfrey, a farm labourer. His father died in an accident three years later and his mother moved to Polecat Cottages, Firle, with her ten children. The Burgesses were a noted family of traditional singers and in 1956 Mervyn Plunkett visited Harry at 3 Malthouse Cottages and recorded some of his repertoire of songs along with the words to the mummers play that Harry, his brother Goff, and a few others performed at the large houses in the neighbourhood at Christmas time until about 1930. Only two recordings of Harry’s songs have survived and these were released in 1998 as part of Topic Records’ The Voice of the People series in 24 volumes (Topic Records TSCD 665 and 668). He can also be found on the British Library's Collect Britain site by typing in ‘Firle’ and listening to Harry.