Lyme Regis

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Lyme Regis seen from the Cobb

Lyme Regis is a coastal town in West Dorset, England, situated 25 miles west of Dorchester and 25 miles east of Exeter. The parish church is located at [50°20′49″N, 2°42′10″W] (Ordnance Survey grid reference SY 344923). The town lies in Lyme Bay, on the English Channel coast at the Dorset-Devon border. It is nicknamed "The Pearl of Dorset". In the 13th century it developed into one of the major British ports.

The town has a population of 3,513, 45% of whom are retired.Office for National Statistics, 2001. [Census data].. Lyme is mentioned in the Domesday Book of 1086. The Royal Charter was granted by King Edward I in 1284, with the addition of 'Regis' to the town's name. This charter was confirmed by Elizabeth I in 1591.

Contents

1 History
2 Places of interest

2.1 The Cobb
2.2 The Town Mill
2.3 The Church

3 Physical geography

3.1 Landslips

4 Annual Events
5 See also
6 References
7 External links

History

In 1644, during the English Civil War, the townspeople, who were Parliamentarians, valiantly withstood an 8 week siege by Royalist forces under Prince Maurice. It was at Lyme Regis that the Duke of Monmouth landed at the start of the Monmouth Rebellion in 1685.

In circa 1834, the English Romantic artist J. M. W. Turner (1775 - 1851) painted a scene of Lyme Regis, now in the Cincinnati Art Museum, Ohio. His near-contemporary, James McNeill Whistler (1834 - 1903) also visited and stayed in Lyme.

In the early 1960s, the town's railway station was closed, a victim of the Beeching Axe. It was rebuilt at Alresford, on the Mid Hants Watercress Railway in Hampshire. The surviving Adams 'Radial Tank' 4-4-2T locomotive is now in action on the Bluebell Line in Sussex.

In 2005, as part of the bicentenary re-enactment of the arrival of the news of Admiral Nelson's victory at the Battle of Trafalgar in 1805, the actor playing the part of Trafalgar messenger Lieutenant Lapenotiere was welcomed at Lyme Regis.

Places of interest

The Cobb, with boats grounded in the harbour at low tide.

The Cobb

Lyme Regis is well known for "The Cobb", a harbour wall full of character and history, built from Portland Admiralty Roach stone. The Cobb is featured in novels by Jane Austen (who stayed for a time in Lyme Regis) and in the The French Lieutenant's Woman by local writer John Fowles, which was adapted as a film set in Lyme Regis.

The Cobb was of enormous economic importance to the town and surrounding area, allowing it to develop as both a major port and a ship-building centre from the 13th century onwards. It provided both a breakwater to protect the town from storms and an artificial harbour.

Well sited for trade with France, the port's most prosperous period was from the 16th century until the end of the 18th century and as recently as 1780 was it larger than Liverpool. The town's importance as a port declined in the 19th century because it was unable to handle the increased size of ships.

The first written mention of the Cobb is in a 1328 document describing it as having been damaged by storms. The structure was made of oak piles driven into the seabed with boulders stacked between them. The boulders were floated into place tied between empty barrels.

A 1685 account describes it as being made of boulders simply heaped up on each other: "an immense mass of stone, of a shape of a demi-lune, with a bar in the middle of the concave: no one stone that lies there was ever touched with a tool or bedded in any sort of cement, but all the pebbles of the see are piled up, and held by their bearings only, and the surge plays in and out through the interstices of the stone in a wonderful manner."

The Cobb has been destroyed or severely damaged by storms several times. For example, it was swept away in 1377 which led to the destruction of 50 boats and 80 houses. The southern arm was added in the 1690s, and rebuilt in 1793 following its destruction in a storm the previous year. This rebuilding is thought to be the first time that mortar was used in the Cobb's construction. The Cobb was completely reconstructed in Portland Admiralty Roach, a type of Portland stone, in 1820.

The Town Mill

The ancient watermill, dating from 1340, is now restored to working order and produces flour which is used in the mill's bakery and also sold in its shop. The water comes from the River Buddle (also called Lim), which runs along a terrace or lynch, hence the description of lynch mill.

Apart from the working mill, visitors can also eat at the café/restaurant or visit art galleries, craft studios and workshops, a bakery, the mill shop and the Miller's garden.

The Church

The parish church is St Michael's, in Church Street. It is situated above Church Cliff and is on high enough ground to dominate the old town. There are three ways to access the churchyard. From Church Street, one can enter through the archway and up the steps, next to the Boys' Club or from higher up the hill, direct from Church Street. From Long Entry, there is a steep climb either up steps or up the service road in front of the flats overlooking Lyme Bay. Mary Anning was buried there and there is a window dedicated to her memory.

Physical geography

Mary Anning's Window, St Michael's Church

The town is famous for the fossils found in the cliffs and beaches, which are part of the Jurassic Coast (also known as the Heritage Coast), a World Heritage Site. The Blue Lias rock is host to a multitude of palaeontological remains. Many of the earliest discoveries of dinosaur and other prehistoric reptile remains were made in the area surrounding Lyme Regis, notably those discovered by Mary Anning (1799–1847). Notable finds were Ichthyosaur, Plesiosaur, Dimorphodon and Dapedium. Anning was laid to rest in the parish church of St Michael the Archangel and members of the Geological Society of London contributed to a stained-glass window to her memory in the same church, having failed to elect her to membership during her lifetime, possibly as a result of latter-day 'genderism'. The town now holds an annual Mary Anning Day. Her pioneering tradition persists to the present. A fossil of the world's largest moth was discovered in 1966 at Lyme Regis.

Landslips

The part of the coast around Lyme Regis is subject to large landslips. This means that Jurassic age fossils are regularly exposed and can be found on the beaches, but it also causes devastation to the town. In 2005, work began on a £16 million engineering project to stabilise the cliffs and protect the town from coastal erosion. The town's main beach was reconstructed and it re-opened on 1 July 2006.

Annual Events

The town has a busy calendar of annual events, including the 'Lyme Regatta', the 'Fossil Festival' (in conjunction with the Natural History Museum, London) and 'Mary Anning Day'.

References

External links

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