Thanks for the suggestion Geoff. I really welcome all criticism and alternative ideas so please don't take what I am about to say the wrong way. The reason this shot was my favourite was purely down to the spotlighting of the cottages, the light in itself boosts the subjects interest, I included the dark bit to appreciate the light bit.
For me the crop loses a bit of balance, the pink cottages are too far towards the bottom left and don't have much to stand on to balance out the boring expanse of sky (which has to be included due to the mast thing on the church tower unfortunately). Your crop did get me thinking though so I have edited a shot from a few minutes before where there is more light on the foreground anyway and I was in closer so the pink cottages take centre stage;
Cavendish Cottages by
Craig Hollis, on Flickr