A number of farmhouses and oasts have become private dwellings, and pairs of farm cottages are now single houses. Older buildings are made of local stone, and many are tile-hung. By the 1870s the spread of the railway had encouraged the building of larger houses, many of them sited on the slope to make the most of the spectacular view. By the beginning of the twentieth century the village had extended north and south with pairs of houses, built mainly for the staff of these large new properties.
In the twenties and thirties, individual houses with large gardens went up along Goodley Stock and Dairy Lane; in 1934 the first social housing appeared in the form of brick houses built in five pairs next to the Royal Oak, to give better accommodation to families living hitherto in cramped farm cottages.
Three more pairs followed at the end of the last war, then a block of flats for older people in the 50s and three pairs of bungalows in the 60s, also for the elderly.
The church, school and original vicarage are mid-Victorian, as are the local-stone cottages facing the main road. The recent school extension
used stone with brick in a sympathetic colour; the Village Hall, too, blends well with the surroundings. Other notable groups of buil-dings include Froghole, which follows the curve of the Greensand Ridge and was the subject of many Rowland Hilder paintings, and Pootings, a settlement with some older houses (some of
them clapboard), and some brick-built homes.
Crockham Hill teaches some excellent lessons in the use of local materials and imaginative design features. The village centre and the few pre-1900 .......>
