Horkesley Heath is originally shown on the 1777 Chapman & Andre Historic Map, located to the south of the settlement of Great Horkesley. The heath is shown on this map to be an irregular shape, with a thin linear section following the road to the north. It has an area of 101.6ha. The map shows a number of buildings on the edge of the heath, including some listed buildings. These include the Grade II listed C18 Woodhouse Farmhouse (LB Number: 1222684) and the Grade 1 listed C15 Church of All Saints, with parts built as early as C12 (LB Number: 1222737). On this map the heath is shown to be connected to Boxted Heath on its east side. It also has a different spelling shown, which is Horlsey Heath. This is most likely due to the fact that the parish was known as Great Horlsey at the time. <1>

Horkesley Heath is then shown on the County Series at 1:2500 Scale Epoch 1 Historic Map (1874-1887), which shows the heath to be a lot smaller and a different shape compared to what it used to be. It is now more of a square and has shrunk to an area of 2.677ha. It has lost most of its land to farmland. Due to this change in size it is no longer connected to Boxted Heath. In modern times the heath seems to disappear completely, as urbanisation takes over the land. It name on the Epoch 1 map is Horkesley Heath to match the parish name change to Great Horkesley. <2>