 Its tenants were among those whose livestock was permitted to graze on the adjacent Wanstead Flats, which at the time belonged to The Crown.With others they fought against the buying up of the Flats by private landowners, but in 1851-2 they lost part of the Flats in a protracted legal battle (though later much of the land was saved for the public, and is now administered by the City of London Corporation).By the 1860s the original cottage had become an enlarged residence with ornamental gardens situated to the south of Cann Hall Road, and the buildings north of the road were known as Cann Hall Farm.