Lyme Regis
|
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 (
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.
In 1644 during the
English Civil War, the townspeople who were
Parliamentarians, 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.
Around 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, as part 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 used 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.
 |
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. It is featured in novels by
Jane Austen - who stayed for a time in Lyme Regis - and in
The French Lieutenant's Woman by local writer
John Fowles, 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 it was larger than
Liverpool. The town's importance as a port declined in the
19th century because it was unable to handle the increase in ship sizes.
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; 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 is thought to be the first time that
mortar was used in the Cobb's construction. The Cobb was completely reconstructed in 1820 using
Portland Admiralty Roach, a type of
Portland stone.
The Town Mill
The
watermill, dating from 1340, has been 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.
The Church
|
Mary Anning's Window, St Michael's Church |
The parish church is
St Michael's, on Church Street. Its full title is parish church of
St Michael the
Archangel. It is situated above Church Cliff and is on ground high enough 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 is buried here and there is a stained-glass window dedicated to her memory by members of the Geological Society of London, an organisation that did not admit women until 1904.
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 from the early
Jurassic, a time from which good fossil records are rare
. Many of the remains are well preserved, with complete specimens of several important species. 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). Significant finds include
Ichthyosaur,
Plesiosaur,
Dimorphodon,
Scelidosaurus, one of the first armoured dinosaurs, and
Dapedium. The town now holds an annual
Mary Anning Day. 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.
[;Images]
*Pictures of people from Lyme Regis
*Fine art photos taken in and around Lyme Regis
*Pictures of Lyme Regis
*360 degree 'virtual reality' panoramas of Lyme Regis
*Local Photographers images of the town and country
;Other links
*"Explore the Jurassic Coast" at the National Trust
*The Town Mill
*Welcome to Lyme Regis
*The Dorest Page
*Jurassic Coast Online Guide
*The Philpot Museum website
*Events Calendar
*Geology of Lyme Regis
*Geology of Lyme Regis Area
*Geology of the Wessex Coast
*Cincinnati Art Museum
*Report on the historical context of the proposed reinstatement of the southern arm of the Cobb 2003
