Encroachment on the heath apparently began in the earlier 17th century when cottages began to be illegally erected on both the Bergholt Hall manor and Cooks Hall manor wastes. By the mid 18th century many encroachments were sanctioned as long as they were registered in the manor courts.Essex Records Office, D/DMa M15, pp. 8, 20, 43–4; D/DH VI D3B; D/DL1 M3, rot. 2; D/DL1 M5, rot. 1 and d.; D/DL1 M10; D/DC 5/126, rott. 1–2 Although a few 18th-century intakes were large additions to existing freeholds or copyholds, many were occupied by small cottages or shops; other encroachments included one for a barn, another for a brick kiln, and a third for a house, but most were small and the heath was still largely unenclosed in 1777.Essex Records Office, D/DL1 M 16; Map of Essex (1777)
