Cronkbourne House takes its name from the Manx word "cronk" (hill) combined with the English "bourne" (stream), and was established by James Moore. His son, William Fine Moore, went on to develop the neighbouring Cronkbourne Village in the 1840s as housing for workers at his nearby flax mill, and lived at Cronkbourne House overlooking the community he was building. The scheme is thought to have been the only model industrial village of its kind on the Isle of Man outside the mining industry, and predates better-known English examples such as Port Sunlight, Bournville and Saltaire.