 Under the Act, the parish then had to cultivate and improve such waste land for the use and benefit of the parish, and also had the power to let such enclosed land in allotments to the inhabitants of the parish to be cultivated on their own account.Taking advantage of this Act, the churchwardens and overseers of Battersea enclosed about of Latchmoor Common and let it out in allotments at a low rental, to the residents of the parish, for the cultivation of vegetables.At the start of the seventeenth century, the allotments were flourishing and Battersea had become famous for its market gardening.