Lyme Regis

Pavement celebration of identity
Coade stone ammonites 

The first time this town came to my attention was as a setting for a complication in Jane Austin's novel Persuasion. I imagined it was a little Brighton until I read Tracey Cavalier's Remarkable Creatures, this title cleverly referring to both the tenacious women protagonists and the fossils they uncovered, pieced together and bought to the world's attention. Lyme Regis also provides the setting for much of The French Lieutenant's Woman and character development is often couched in referrals to Darwinism and perhaps the evolution of the female species by Smithson's interest in fossil hunting and natural history. The film adaptation with Meryl Streep and Jeremy

The Cobb from the BBC film version of Persuasion
image from: http://www.earthlydelights.com.au/tours/tour-2

Irons has many of its outdoor scenes shot in this little town.
While there I noticed advertisements for literary tours around the area. Agatha Christie frequented Torquay - a town down the road and is said to have styled Lymstock in her novel, The Moving Finger, on Lyme Regis. Thomas Hardy's Castlebridge (Dorchester) is also close at hand and Dartmoor, setting of Doyle's The Hound of the Baskervilles is a short drive inland. http://www.literarylyme.co.uk/ The Lyme Regis Museum has a little wing of displays celebrating these literary connections.

Young paleontologists

When Willow and Joff were preschoolers, dinosaur names rolled off their tongues as easily as yes and no. Willow would fight for the rights of the herbivores to be eaten by Joff's carnivores only after a 'natural' death and ritual farewell in the rock garden graveyard. Joff argued, with the logic of a 3yr old blood thirsty boy, that this system was not sensible as the carnivores would lose their killing instincts and body parts over time to be nothing but scavengers. Willow agreed and thought this was a most sensible route of adaptation as she looped passion flowers around geranium stems for the plastic figures to live in.

The River Lym nearly to the sea.
The Doomesday bk records a Mill here in 1086

The only time I heard them fight was when Joff periodically threw off Willow's decree and savaged the peaceful herbie village with his T-rex. Many Victorians completely ditched their faith in God when presented with the concept of extinction because they thought it meant God was admitting to an error. However you reconcile the evidence of dinosaurs with Flood and Creation beliefs, their existence is indisputable and upon Lyme Regis beaches, we hoped to uncover a couple of fossils for ourselves.

As with any of the towns on the coast during August, Lyme Regis is a popular spot and attracts the crowds. As we drove in from the A3052  we spotted a temporary 'Park and Ride' sign so we swung into a field with excellent views across the bay, parked the van in line and for £5 per vehicle we jumped onto a little bus(dogs allowed) and disembarked at Cobb Gate Car Park - which was tiny and full. The service was brilliant - constant round trips by two drivers to east and west farmer's fields. Perhaps the farmers themselves had the initiative for a bit of 'making hay while the sun shines'.

Granny winding up the turret stairs                 Exterior of the museum - opposite the town council

Our first stop was at the Lyme Regis Museum. This is said to be built on the site where Mary Anning's house had been. Mary was carpenter's daughter who put together the first Ichthyosaur- swimming dino from her findings on the shore, it's still in the British Museum. She made a living running the first fossil shop in L.R in the early 1800s. SHe was one of the first female paleontologists. The Philpot sisters inherited their father's wealth and purpose built this unusual structure as a Museum to the fossilist history of the area. It also has some WW memrobillia and other local claims to fame. Go to their web page to book guided fossil walks or a history walk that touches on the smuggling trade in the area as well as famous residents and visitors to the town. http://www.lymeregismuseum.co.uk 

Charlie enjoyed his sausage.  The gulls were very interested but were happy to wait until we'd binned the leftovers before helping themselves by hauling out the wrappers and pecking through the remains.

We decided to have iconic English Fish'n'Chips for lunch in individual wrapped parcels by the sea. Walking into the shop opposite the bus stop a very cheerful Melbourne man took our order and thought that purchasing a sausage for Charlie was a little over the top. He apologised for the lack of chicken salt and explained that he hadn't been able to convince his boss that it was a good idea - probably wouldn't go well with the vinegar most people splash on before wrapping over here. Granny ordered a vegetarian pattie that turned out to be delicious. Hot and salty on a cool day at the seaside is very satisfying.

The dog beach - looking towards Charmouth

 The town has recently completed a massive walkway project that connects visitors to East beach, the stretch of coast below the layered, crumbling cliffs that reveal hidden fossils with every storm. This beach stretches all the way to Charmouth where the official Jurassic Coast Fossil center is. http://www.charmouth.org/chcc/ The walkway was officially opened the day before we arrived but was unavailable for use as one section had some sort of structural issue that a digger was putting to rights. This meant that we had to use the same access techniques as Mary Anning herself. At low tide it is possible to clamber over the Church Cliff Beach(dogs allowed) wall and down onto the slippery, muddy rocks of East Beach westerly end. We tiptoed around the slimy weed trying to find solid patches for about 500m, stealing glances at the wide smooth promenade fenced off above us, until we made it to the section of beach above the high tide mark.

Over the sea wall to East beach

Slippery, slippery mud and weed - concentrating on placing the feet safely and not sliding out of those jandals.

A moment of sun lights up the scene.

 Here we suddenly realised that we were completely under resourced for fossil hunting. Family groups complete with rock shattering hammers were systematically whacking through chunks of mud slate felled from the cliffs by winter storms. We beachcombed along, happy to find a few stones with ancient mollusk imprints. I found the bowl end and stem of a hand beaten spoon which I claim came from the regency period and was possibly from a picnic set used by one of the Austin clan! Enough sea smoothed glass fragments were tossed between the stones to happily fill a fete stall once drilled and strung into necklaces or bracelets. Keeping an eye on the tide we decided to return before being separated from Granny and Gramps back at Church Cliff Beach. (I was very ageist and discouraged any chance of slipping and sliding on the low tide rocks.)

M does not like to be unprepared - no hammer in that backpack of Dad's Willow?

Trying to interest Charlie in fossils
Not even he will listen to my 'informative ramblings'

Dog prints across the faint fossil

The mud rock layers are still hiding the remains of ancient life

We headed back down Marine Parade , past the colourful beach huts to one of the many ice cream shops beside the sandy beach. Willow and Petal opted for spearmint thick shakes. Gramps and the girls were happy to sit and watch as M, Granny and I went to investigate where Louisa Musgrove demanded to be bounced down the steps of the Cobb, but leaping before dashing Capt. Wentworth had readied himself only to smash her head and memories on the stone path. This behaviour leading to the Capt's realisation that he rather preferred the demur, self controlled Miss Anne Elliot instead. On the way we passed a seaside store covered in colourful windmills with rock candy coloured handles. I couldn't resist and waved it gleefully as we teetered along the top of the Cobb in a stiff sea breeze. The girls reckoned they still didn't see me waving to them!

Families crowding onto the sandy beach

Granny enjoying her milkshake?

Walking down the Cobb

The windmill really doesn't show up. 

The Cobb tilts down to a big drop - M being very brave.

A tidal marina

 There were many very interesting looking shops, fossil joints and art galleries up the winding roads that lead to the Jane Austin Gardens and up Broad St (that was rather narrow) but that old enemy time was waving his red flag and we wanted to get to the big Morrisons supermarket that we had spied driving through Bridport that morning, for supplies before it closed.

Very sorry we didn't have time for this bookshop - maybe a stay at the B&B in the future sometime?

Lyme Regis is another spot that I would visit again, a chirpy little town with a harbour full of happenings to watch and interesting places to keep a couple of days full of interest.

Street lights down the promenade.

The Van's view as it awaited our return.