J.A.R. HillSerpentine Works

The Hill family has quarried and turned Lizard serpentine at their workshop on the village square since 1946 — two generations of them, working a stone whose fashion was made when Prince Albert visited in 1846 and ordered mantelpieces for Osborne House. The Victorian serpentine industry built a factory at Poltesco that closed in 1893; the craft survives in workshops like this one, where the lathe-turned lighthouses, bowls and jewellery in the shop are cut from stone the family digs locally, and repairs and commissions are taken — though they may wait until autumn in the height of the season. Britain's most southerly village, and one of the last places to watch this trade done.