The village hall, sometimes known as the Institute or Green Hut (!) was built in 1923 as a Miners Welfare Hall for the benefit and enjoyment of the many miners and their families living in the area.

The area's earliest recreation ground was between Yorkley and Oldcroft on waste land given for public use circa1893 and was used by a cricket club in 1914. Further east towards Viney Hill a football ground laid out opposite All Saints' school before 1957, included the new building of a sports and social club in 1993. At Pillowell the earliest recreation ground was on land at the edge of Kidnalls wood, to the south, donated by Lord Bledisloe circa1919.

In 1841 the Yorkley area contained three beer houses on Crown land, one each at Viney Hill, Yorkley, and Pillowell. At Viney Hill the Albion inn, where a burial club met, and a Blakeney friendly society held its anniversary in 1855, closed after 1957 and the New Inn, recorded from 1876 is still open. The Nag's Head, the oldest inn in Yorkley, had opened by 1788.

Later inns there, including the Stag opened by 1870, have closed, apart from the Bailey (formerly the Royal Oak) inn. At Pillowell a beer house known in 1901 as the Royal Foresters' Arms closed after 1958 but at Phipps Bottom the Swan, so called in 1891, is still open.