Mary Anning was born #onthisday in 1799, one of the most famous fossil finders of her day. Her family had earned a living for years by gathering fossils on the shore at Lyme Regis in Dorset to sell to collectors, leading to the well-known rhyme: ‘She sells sea shells by the sea shore’. Mary learned about the fossils from her parents. Despite the lack of a formal education, she became an expert on the fossils she found, and the most eminent geologists of the day often sought her advice. In the 1820s she became the first person in Britain to find complete specimens of an ichthyosaur, a plesiosaur and a pterodactyl.
The specimens that Anning collected can still be found in museums throughout Britain. This large skull is part of the skull and lower jaw of an ichthyosaur (Ichthyosaurus platyodon). The British Museum purchased this shortly after Anning discovered it. The Museum’s natural history collections moved to South Kensington in the 1880s and this is now on loan from the Natural History Museum, London, on display in our Enlightenment Gallery.
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Coordinates: 50.725°N 2.940°W
| Lyme Regis | |
| Lyme | |
 Lyme Regis from the Cobb |
|
Lyme Regis
Lyme Regis shown within Dorset |
|
| Population | 3,671 [1] |
|---|---|
| OS grid reference | SY337922 |
| - London | 130 miles (210 km) |
| District | West Dorset |
| Shire county | Dorset |
| Region | South West |
| Country | England |
| Sovereign state | United Kingdom |
| Post town | LYME REGIS |
| Postcode district | DT7 |
| Dialling code | 01297 |
| Police | Dorset |
| Fire | Dorset |
| Ambulance | South Western |
| EU Parliament | South West England |
| UK Parliament | West Dorset |
| Website | lymeregis.org |
The town was home to Admiral Sir George Somers, its one time mayor and parliamentarian, who founded the Somers Isles, better known as Bermuda.
At the 2011 Census the town's parish had a population of 3,671.
Contents
History
In Saxon times abbots from Sherborne Abbey had salt boiling rights on a plot of land adjacent to the River Lym,[2] and the Abbey once owned part of the town.[3] Lyme is mentioned in the Domesday Book of 1086. In the 13th century it developed into one of the major British ports. A 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.John Leland visited the town in the sixteenth century and described it as "a praty market town set in the rootes of an high rokky hille down to the hard shore. There cummith a shalow broke from the hilles about a three miles by north, and cummith fleting on great stones through a stone bridge in the botom."[3]
In 1644, during the English Civil War, Parliamentarians here withstood an eight-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 1965, 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 route to Lyme Regis had been notable for being operated by aged Victorian locomotives. One of these Adams Radial Tank engines is now preserved on the Bluebell Railway in Sussex.
In 2005, as part of the bicentenary re-enactment of the arrival of the news, aboard the Bermuda sloop HMS Pickle, 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.
Governance
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This section requires expansion. (May 2010) |
Geography
The town is noted for the fossils found in the cliffs and beaches, which are part of the Heritage Coast—known commercially as the Jurassic Coast—a World Heritage Site. The Jurassic Coast stretches over a distance of 153 kilometres (95 mi), from Orcombe Point near Exmouth, in the west, to Old Harry Rocks, in the east.[4] The coastal exposures along the coastline provide a continuous sequence of Triassic, Jurassic and Cretaceous rock formations spanning approximately 185 million years of the Earth's history. The localities along the Jurassic Coast include a large range of important fossil zones. The Blue Lias rock is host to a multitude of remains from the early Jurassic, a time from which good fossil records are rare.[5] 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 and Lyme Regis Fossil Festival. A fossil of the world's largest moth was discovered in 1966 at Lyme Regis.
River Lim
The town has grown around the confluence of the short River Lim (or Lym) with the sea. The Lim drops from the plateau at around 200m before flowing around 5–6 km south and southeast to its mouth. Its name is of British origin and is likely cognate with Welsh 'llif' meaning 'flood', 'stream'.[6] Historically there were various mills along its length. Its lower reaches are followed by sections of three recreational paths; the Wessex Ridgeway, Liberty Trail and East Devon Trail.[7]Landslips
In 2005, work began on a £16 million engineering project to stabilise the cliffs and protect the town from coastal erosion.[10] The town's main beach was reconstructed and re-opened on 1 July 2006. On the evening of 6 May 2008, a 400 metres (1,300 ft) section of land slipped onto the beach between Lyme Regis and Charmouth. Local Police described the landslip as the "worst for 100 years".[11] This has necessitated the diversion of the South West Coast Path inland from Lyme Regis to Charmouth via the Lyme Regis Golf Course. Latest safety information for fossil hunting, beaches and landslips is available from the Tourist Information Centre located in Church Street, Lyme Regis.
Places of interest
The Cobb
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.
The Cobb was of economic importance to the town and surrounding area, allowing it to develop as both a major port and a shipbuilding centre from the 13th century onwards. Shipbuilding was particularly significant between 1780 and 1850 with around 100 ships launched including a 12-gun Royal Navy brig called HMS Snap.[12] The wall of the Cobb provided both a breakwater to protect the town from storms and an artificial harbour.
It was in the Cobb harbour, after the great storm of 1824, that Captain Sir Richard Spencer RN carried out his pioneering lifeboat design work.
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 reconstructed in 1820 using Portland Admiralty Roach, a type of Portland stone.
The Cobb also separates Monmouth Beach and Cobb Gate Beach.
Lyme Regis Marine Aquarium
One of the buildings on the Cobb has been converted to house a marine aquarium which displays local fish and marine life from the Jurassic coast. [13] The primary attraction of the aquarium are the Thicklip grey mullet which have been trained to accept food directly from people, including members of the public, by hand. The owners claim that this behaviour is unique to the aquarium.The Town Mill
St Michael's Church
There are three ways to access the churchyard. From Church Street, 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.
Lyme Regis Museum
Main article: Lyme Regis Museum
The museum, built on the site of paelontologist Mary Anning's
birthplace and family shop off Bridge Street, houses a large collection
of local memorabilia, historical items and exhibits explaining the
local geological and palaeontological treasures. The museum was formerly known as the Philpot Museum.[17]Set into the pavement, outside the museum, is an ornate example of Coade stone work, in the form of ammonites, reflecting both local history (Eleanor Coade) and the palaeontology for which the town is famous.
The Dinosaurland Fossil Museum is also located in Lyme Regis in the former church where Mary Anning was baptised.
Lepers Well
On the West bank of the River Lym near the Town Mill is the site of an old chapel "St Mary & the Holy Spirits", known locally as "Lepers Well". The term "Leper" was used as a blanket description of medieval skin diseases and not necessarily "Leprosy" as it is understood today. There is a small plaque on the wall telling of the hospital which stood on the site 700 years ago. The water still runs today although one assumes in a much reduced flow. Little information survives today, the land was left untouched for many years and some locals can remember livestock being kept on the land before it was landscaped into a visitors garden in the 1970s.Three Cups Hotel
The Three Cups Hotel between 15 and 19 Broad Street has associations with many famous literary and historical figures. It is believed that Jane Austen stayed in Hiscott’s Boarding house on the same site in 1804.[18] The front section of the current building dates from 1807. The hotel has played host to many famous and influential people including Alfred Lord Tennyson, Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, Hilaire Belloc, G.K. Chesterton and J. R. R. Tolkien who spent several holidays there. In 1944, General Eisenhower delivered an important briefing to senior officers in the first floor lounge prior to D-Day. The building is of significant architectural and historical interest being mentioned in Pevsner’s Buildings of England volume on Dorset. The hotel was used in the making of the film The French Lieutenant’s Woman in 1981, featuring Jeremy Irons and Meryl Streep. The current owners, Palmers Brewery of Bridport closed the hotel in May 1990 and have announced plans to demolish the significantly historic rear of the building and replace it with retail units, restaurant, visitor and private accommodation.[19]Royal Lion Hotel
The Royal Lion Hotel is a former coaching inn, dated to the first decade of the 17th century. It is reputedly haunted; many unexplained ectoplasms have been sighted in the corridors and cold spots.[20]Culture
Lyme Regis has a recent history of record breaking attempts, 410 people singing Frère Jacques[21] and largest sand ammonite.[22]
Notable people
- Mary Anning (1799–1847) was an early British fossil collector and palaeontologist.[23]
- Jane Austen visited Lyme Regis three times in 1803 and 1804 staying for several weeks in the summer of 1804. The dramatic events in Persuasion led to a flow of fans to the town: the poet Tennyson is said to have gone straight to the Cobb on his arrival, saying, "Show me the exact spot where Louisa Musgrove fell!"[24]
- Thomas Coram (c 1688–1751), founder of the Foundling Hospital in London.[25]
- Eleanor Coade (1733–1821), manufacturer of the artificial stone known as coade stone, owned 'Belmont House' from 1784 until 1821.[25]
- John Fowles, who lived in Lyme Regis for 35 years, latterly in 'Belmont House', based his novel The French Lieutenant's Woman there.[26]
- Percy Gilchrist, the metallurgist, was born in Lyme Regis. He is most notable for his work in steel production.[27]
- Abraham Hayward (1801–1884), writer and essayist who, with his father Joseph Hayward, an amateur horticulturist of 'Westhill', Silver Street, Lyme Regis, successfully brought a landmark case in the 1840s on behalf of the citizens of Lyme Regis, to maintain a permanent right of way for the town's citizens across the cliffs to Axmouth and Seaton.[28]
- John Gould (1804–1881), artist and ornithologist, was born in Lyme Regis. He wrote and illustrated 18 books about birds including those from Australia. The Gould League is named after him.[27]
- Maj Gen Sir E. B. Rowcroft (1881–1963), British Army officer and founder of REME retired to and died in Lyme Regis.[29]
See also
- Regis (Place)
- List of place names with royal patronage in the United Kingdom
- East Devon Way
- List of Dorset Beaches
- List of places on the Jurassic Coast
- List of fossil sites
References
- ^ "Parish Population Data". Dorset County Council. 14 March 2013. Retrieved 6 May 2013.
- ^ Ralph Wightman (1983). Portrait of Dorset (4 ed.). Robert Hale Ltd. p. 163. ISBN 0 7090 0844 9.
- ^ a b Sir Frederick Treves (1905). Highways and Byways in Dorset (1 ed.). MacMillan and Co., Ltd. p. 268.
- ^ "Dorset and East Devon Coast". UNESCO World Heritage Centre. 2001. Retrieved 14 January 2007.
- ^ Benton MJ, Spencer PS (1995). Fossil Reptiles of Great Britain. Chapman & Hall. ISBN 0-412-62040-5.
- ^ Ekwall, E. 1981. The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Place-names (4th edn) Oxford
- ^ Ordnance Survey 1:25,000 scale Explorer map 29, Lyme Regis & Bridport
- ^ "Town fears more landslides". BBC News England. 8 January 2003. Retrieved 5 July 2006.
- ^ The Undercliff. Philpot Museum website, Lyme Regis. Accessed 2006-09-01.
- ^ "Popular beach reopens for summer". BBC News. 1 July 2005. Retrieved 5 July 2006.
- ^ "Landslip is 'worst in 100 years". BBC News. 7 May 2008. Retrieved 7 May 2008. [Includes video]
- ^ Fowles John (1991). A Short History of Lyme Regis. Dovecote Press. pp. 34–35. ISBN 0-946159-93-9.
- ^ http://www.lymeregismarineaquarium.co.uk/ Lyme Regis Marine Aquarium
- ^ http://www.townmill.org.uk/ Town Mill, Lyme Regis
- ^ "News & Events". www.townmillbrewery.com. Retrieved 2 May 2010.
- ^ Betjeman, John, ed. (1968) Collins Pocket Guide to English Parish Churches; the South. London: Collins; p. 175
- ^ Lyme Regis Museum: About Us
- ^ The (New) Three Cups by Jo Draper, All Over The Town, Journal of The Lyme Regis Society, June 2007
- ^ Architectural Appraisal and Assessment of Special Interest: Three Cups Hotel, Broad Street, Lyme Regis - Forum Heritage Services (January 2010)
- ^ "The Royal Lion Hotel". Haunted Britain. Retrieved 1 December 2011.
- ^ hublyme, 2011, frere-jacques
- ^ Lyme Regis Carnival 2011
- ^ Hilliam, David (2010). The Little Book of Dorset. Stroud, Glos.: The History Press. p. 106. ISBN 978-0-7524-5704-8.
- ^ Article by John Vaughan in Monthly Packet (1893). Quoted in Hill, Constance (1923) [1901]. "Chapter 13: Lyme". Jane Austen: Her Homes & Her Friends. Ellen G. Hill (illustrator) (3rd edition ed.). John Lane, The Bodley Head. p. 140. Retrieved 1 September 2006.
- ^ a b Hilliam, David (2010). The Little Book of Dorset. Stroud, Glos.: The History Press. p. 135. ISBN 978-0-7524-5704-8.
- ^ Hilliam, David (2010). The Little Book of Dorset. Stroud, Glos.: The History Press. p. 36. ISBN 978-0-7524-5704-8.
- ^ a b Hilliam, David (2010). The Little Book of Dorset. Stroud, Glos.: The History Press. p. 132. ISBN 978-0-7524-5704-8.
- ^ Chessell, Antony (2009). The Life and Times of Abraham Hayward, QC. Lulu Publishing. ISBN 978-1-4092-2467-9
- ^ The Craftsman XIX (2): 37. February 1964.
External links
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Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Lyme Regis |
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Wikivoyage has travel information related to: Lyme Regis |
- Official tourism website for Lyme Regis
- Town council
- Geology of Lyme Regis area (Southampton University)
- Landslides at Lyme Regis British Geological Survey
- Lyme Regis at the Open Directory Project
- 作者的房產很大--Jane Austen 的小說描述過的地方---身後願捐給University of East Anglia - UEA當"寫作中心--- 可憐的英國大學. 評估之後放棄.因為無力維持之. 我很關心後來如何了.......
- http://www.theguardian.com/books/2013/may/07/john-fowles-house-landmark-trust-restoration
Author John Fowles's Dorset house to become a centre for young writers
Landmark Trust sets to work on historic seaside building, home of the author of The French Lieutenant's Woman until his death
John Fowles poses at his home in Lyme Regis, Dorset, in 1985. Photograph: David Levenson/Getty ImagesIn 1999, six years before he died, the novelist John Fowles wrote that despite its beauty, acres of garden, ravishing views and historic interest – not only as his home but that of the pioneering Georgian businesswoman, Eleanor Coade he – was failing to give away his beloved house in Lyme Regis, Dorset.
He dreamed the Grade II* listed Belmont House could become a centre "for young writers and artists" who would be as inspired by its beauty and history as he. The main windows of the room where he wrote look straight out to sea, or steeply down to the Cobb where he sent his melancholy heroine, The French Lieutenant's Woman, on her solitary walks. His desk, possibly to give him some defence from the distractions of such a view, was set at right angles to it.
He had lost count of the institutions he approached, he wrote sadly, including the University of East Anglia, famed for the creative writing course co-founded by his friend Malcolm Bradbury, of which he was an honorary graduate. None felt capable of taking it on.
One American demanded assurance that the property could never suffer from landslip: since the house is perched halfway up a cliff on the Jurassic Coast, where for centuries fossil hunters have flocked to pry treasures from the rapidly eroding slopes, he could give no such promise.
Now, though there are many more cracks in walls and terrace, and the garden is even more of a jungle than he affectionately complained of, his wishes may come true.
The Landmark Trust, which restores historic buildings, has bought Belmont from Fowles's widow Sarah, and is fundraising to restore it not just as a holiday rental like its other properties, but a residential centre for young writers. This time the University of East Anglia, whose graduates include Anne Enright, Kazuo Ishiguro and Ian McEwan, has said yes.
Discussions are also ongoing with Royal Holloway and other academic institutions.
The move is an innovation for the Landmark, but one which its new director Anna Keay hopes to build on at other properties.
"I love the thought of bringing that literary life back into the house, and making the whole place not just a nicely restored old building but a living memorial to Fowles and his work," she said.
"The history of this house is already so rich and multilayered, it's nice to think of adding another chapter."
Many of the trust's properties are eccentric, including a pineapple-shaped summer house, a palatial water tower and a pigsty designed as a Greek temple.
The extraordinary facade of Belmont, a plain Georgian box bristling with applied decoration including sea monsters, urns and a head of Neptune, will fit perfectly into the portfolio.
The house was a summer home and a sort of three dimensional trade card for the formidable Eleanor Coade, who manufactured classical figures, architectural ornaments and garden statues at Coade's Artificial Stone Manufactory in Lambeth, out of an artificial stone which has proved astonishingly tough.
The facade is sadly damp-stained and cracked, and inside ceilings, verandah and windows are propped to prevent collapse: the fierce little dolphins, made in the 1780s, are as crisp as if made yesterday.
Fowles, who was for many years curator of the Lyme Regis museum, was fascinated by Coade – "that very rare thing, both an artist and a successful early woman industrialist".
The trust has now won planning permission to demolish the shabby stumps of once ornate Victorian wings added by later owners, but will keep a charming observatory added in the 1880s by a Victorian GP, Richard Bangay.
They plan to restore the surviving mechanism on which the entire roof once rotated and opened, and reinstate a telescope – and, they hope, some visiting astronomers too.
Another rare survivor, a little stable building, will become an exhibition space telling the story of the house and its owners.
When Keay first saw the building she felt she had been there before. "Everything about it, the views, the steep scramble down through the garden to the Cobb, even the fact that there really had been a telescope like the one the doctor in the French Lieutenant's Woman uses to spy on women on the beach, seemed so familiar it was almost eerie."
In fact, although Fowles had obviously already paced every inch of the settings he used in the novel, he bought the house just after he finished the book which became even more famous as the 1981 Harold Pinter-scripted film starring Meryl Streep and Jeremy Irons.
In his journal for September 7 1968 he recorded both the house and the telegrammed reaction of his publisher, Tom Maschler.
"I have offered £18,000 for Belmont House. 'The French Lieutenant's Woman is magnificent, no less. Congratulations. Letter follows. Love Tom'. That's a relief."
John Fowles--The Journals, Volume I
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John Fowles - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_FowlesJohn Robert Fowles (/faʊls/; 31 March 1926 – 5 November 2005) was an English .... Writings; (2003) The Journals – Volume 1; (2006) The Journals – Volume 2 ..
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