As Ben Langworthy continues his mission to draw his way around the UK’s lighthouses, he lands at Lizard Point — famed for the exploits of smugglers, wreckers and pirates.

If you travel to the southernmost reaches of mainland Britain, you will eventually find yourself at Lizard Point in Cornwall. The area was once famed for the exploits of smugglers, wreckers and pirates.

Washed ashore, the cargo of wrecked ships was considered common property, and floundering ships drew enormous crowds of salvagers to the beach. Too rare an occurrence to be relied upon, wreckers would light beacons on headlands and shores — makeshift lighthouses with nefarious intent — to lure ships into being dashed upon the rocks.

So integral was this income to the livelihoods of entire working-class Cornish communities, that opposition to the construction of an official light was fierce. Though lighthouses are usually seen as life-saving navigation aids — one of the only structures purpose-built to preserve life — they here functioned as a tool of the establishment; quite literally shining a light on activities many would’ve preferred to keep in the shadows.

A lighthouse was eventually built in 1619, but due to a lack of funds and its immense unpopularity, it was demolished a few years later. The current lighthouse, with its distinctive twin towers, was completed in 1751. While the light is now electric, originally coal fire beacons burned atop each tower. The head keeper kept a wary eye from a specially designed room in the cottage between the two towers, making sure his subordinates kept the fires burning bright.

Over the centuries the lights improved. Coal gave way to oil and oil to electricity. Eventually only one light was needed, and in 1903 the western tower’s lantern room was removed.

Lizard Lighthouse was automated in 1998 and opened as a Heritage Centre in 2009.