The Glynde map of 1717 shows a house standing in the middle of The Square, Glynde. The name used here for this house is taken from an entry in the memoranda of William Wisdom: ‘about the year 1763 there was a cottage in the middle of Glynde Street, where now stands only a waypost. Old Master Stepney lived in it. Cottage, woodyard, well and sycamore tree were all inclosed with a single rail fence and the stocks stood in the Street in front. The present waypost was set up by brother Nicholas [Wisdom] and self without any expense to the parish. Lord Hampden per Revd Mr Davies gave us the post. The house had probably been the residence of the village blacksmiths who had worked the forge that stood on the site where Malthouse Cottages now stand. Robert Wells had owned this house, which paid 1d a year in manorial rent. On his death in 1716 the house passed to Richard Easton who sold it in 1719 to John Grover, blacksmith. John Grover died in 1722 and left the property to his wife Joan and it passed to their daughter Mary who had married John Willard. By 1730 John Willard owned the house but he had built Pear Tree Cottage for his own residence and the house in the middle of Glynde Street would have been rented out, possibly to ‘Master Stepney’. In 1767 Willard sold the property ‘adjoining to the King’s Highway on all sides’ to Richard Trevor.