Polperro
Polperro is one of the most picturesque and most completely preserved fishing villages in England, a settlement tucked into a narrow creek below the south Cornish cliffs whose combination of whitewashed and painted cottages packed into the steep valley sides, the tiny inner harbour and the complete absence of motor traffic in the village centre creates one of the most authentic and most visited fishing village landscapes in Cornwall. The village is reached from the car park on the clifftop by walking down the valley path or by electric vehicle, the exclusion of ordinary traffic having preserved the human scale of the village as no comparable settlement on this coast has been preserved. The village grew as a fishing settlement from at least the medieval period, its natural harbour formed by the creek that descends from the Cornish plateau to the sea providing protection for the small fleet of fishing boats that worked the waters offshore. The seventeenth and eighteenth centuries saw considerable prosperity from both fishing and smuggling, the village's remote position and the labyrinthine nature of its narrow lanes making it an ideal base for the contraband trade that was a major economic activity along the entire south Cornish coast in the period before effective Customs enforcement. The inner harbour, with its fish quay, the small boat museum in the old pilchard cellar and the cluster of buildings at the waterfront, provides the focal point of any Polperro visit. The coastal walking from the village in both directions, along paths providing views of the spectacular south Cornish cliffs and sea, extends the visit beyond the village itself and provides the wider landscape context for this concentrated fishing settlement. The village has attracted artists since the nineteenth century and several galleries and studios within the village reflect a continuing tradition of creative response to this exceptional setting.