Cuckoos was the site of a freehold tenement dating back to at least the 16th century and probably earlier. The present house was built during the 17th century and on the 1677 map of Little Baddow is depicted as a fairly large house, with 3 chimney stacks. It was supposedly named for Walter Cukkok of Rivenhall (c 1370) and was known as “Cukkoks” and “Cuckowes” at different times.
It was at Cuckoos, according to tradition, that the Nonconformist ministers, Thomas Hooker and John Eliot, conducted a school around 1630. At that time, the house was rented by John and Sybil Porter, who were Puritans and emigrated to Connecticut in 1638. In 1677, Cuckoos was occupied by Isaac Putto, the son-in-law of the Nonconformist minister, Richard Rand. A few years later it was leased to Elizabeth Rand, one of the minister’s daughters, supporting the idea that it was used as a Nonconformist meeting house prior to the chapel being built in 1707.
Cuckoos continued as a working farm into the 20th century. Between the wars, William Wilde farmed there with two or three cows as well as several chickens. He used to deliver milk around the village by horse and cart, scooping it out of the churn into his buyer’s jug.