Complex sentence: There were villages at Kinson, Throop, Holdenhurst and Iford and a handful of buildings at Pokesdown but the area between these communities was just a wilderness of pine trees, gorse, ferns and heather.
Split into simpler sentences: There were villages at Kinson, Throop, Holdenhurst and Iford and a handful of buildings at Pokesdown. But the area between these communities was just a wilderness of pine trees, gorse, ferns and heather.