--- title: "El Realengo’s 1950s Settler Houses and the Locks Still in Them" description: "El Realengo was built in 1957–61 as a planned farming village of 81 houses. What to check on the original doors, and when a lock is worth changing." url: "https://locksmithcrevillente.es/blog/el-realengo-settler-houses-and-their-locks/" business: "Locksmith Crevillente" --- # El Realengo’s settler houses, and the locks still in them El Realengo was built in 1957–61 as a planned farming village. What to look at on the doors of its houses, and when the lock is worth changing. 7 October 2026 · 4 min read El Realengo is not an old village that grew slowly. It was planned and built in one go, between 1957 and 1961, by the national agrarian institute of the time, to a design by the architect José Luis Fernández del Amo. The plan was rationalist and orderly: **61 houses for settlers and 20 for workers**, each settler’s plot between 900 and 1,750 square metres, with the house and an orchard so a family could live off the land. Today about 307 people live there. Many of the houses have been altered over the years, some barely at all. If you live in one, or are about to buy one, the doors deserve a look. ## What to look at on an older door You do not need tools for this, only a few minutes and the key. 1. **Does the key turn smoothly the whole way?** Roughness or a point where it catches is wear inside the lock, or a key worn smooth. 2. **Does the door close without being pushed?** If you have to lift or shove it for the latch to catch, the door or its hinges have moved, and the lock is being forced every day. 3. **What kind of lock is it?** A big key usually means a mortice lock set in the thickness of the door. A small flat key, a cylinder. Sometimes there are both, from different decades. 4. **How many keys are out there?** On a house that has changed hands, nobody can be sure. ## When the lock is worth changing - **You have just bought the house.** Change the cylinder, or the lock, on the first day. You cannot know who still has a key. - **The key catches or the lock is stiff.** Better replaced on a day you choose than failing on a day you do not. - **The door is the original and you want to keep it.** An old mortice lock can often be repaired, or a modern lock added beside it so the old one stays for its looks. What not to do: oil an old lock heavily. Thick oil collects dust, and the mechanism ends up stiffer than before. ## The other doors on the plot A settler’s house came with land, and land has other doors: the gate to the orchard, a store, a shed. Padlocks and old rim locks out there take the weather worse than the house door. If you are checking one, check them all. ## Finding the house El Realengo is one of the five settlements of the municipality, away from the town. When you ring, say **El Realengo** before anything else, then the street. All five settlements and what to say in each are on [the coverage page](https://locksmithcrevillente.es/areas-we-reach/). If your lock is wearing and you would like to understand why, read [what really wears a lock down in Crevillente](https://locksmithcrevillente.es/blog/no-sea-air-what-wears-an-inland-lock/). If your house is older still and dug into a hill, see [the cave house guide](https://locksmithcrevillente.es/blog/behind-the-front-door-of-a-cave-house/). Thinking of changing the lock? Cylinders, old mortice locks and multipoint locks, booked for a day that suits you. [Lock change in Crevillente, booked for a day that suits the house](https://locksmithcrevillente.es/lock-change-crevillente/) Read next - [What sits behind the front door of a cave house](https://locksmithcrevillente.es/blog/behind-the-front-door-of-a-cave-house/) · 5 min - [No sea air here, so what wears a lock down?](https://locksmithcrevillente.es/blog/no-sea-air-what-wears-an-inland-lock/) · 5 min - [All the guides for Crevillent](https://locksmithcrevillente.es/blog/) ## Rather ring than read on? Ring, or send a photo of the lock and your location on WhatsApp. Open 24 hours · 7 days [+34 678 583 290](tel:+34678583290) [WhatsApp](https://wa.me/34678583290?text=Hi%2C%20I%20need%20a%20locksmith%20in%20Crevillente.%20Where%20I%20am%20(street%2C%20or%20the%20settlement%3A%20El%20Realengo%2C%20San%20Felipe%20Neri%2C%20Las%20Casicas%E2%80%A6)%20and%20what%20has%20happened%3A)