Your first photo, Norman, was an eye-opener for me. I left Monkton Village in 1965 when I got married. The built up area at the top of the picture was all fields at that time and the village was basically just the main road with houses on both sides.
It would be interesting to see the electoral register from my days compared to the present day; the population must have multiplied several-fold.
Our house was in the countryside, but now is in a built up area. Such, I suppose, is progress.