Anyone still clinging to the idea that shops near the sea are obliged to sell buckets, spades, ice-creams (and pasties), and nothing but, has never been to Rock.

Here you can choose from high-end shops selling an unlikely array of anything from black truffles to white jeans via specialist cheeses and aspirational lifestyle brand clothing.

Rock's shops offer an inventory of a quality matched by the bakery (reserve your items or queue at half past seven), the butcher as well as the fishmonger.

Rock itself shares with Padstow several luxury-end, casual and sports retailers, including Crew Clothing, Musto and Joules. So be warned, if you've come to North Cornwall to wean teenagers off their High St habits, you might be in for more of a struggle than you thought …