Lyme Regis

Description:

Lyme Regis is a coastal town in West Dorset and it has the distinction of being the most westerly town in Dorset. It is situated 25 miles west of Dorchester and lies in Lyme Bay on the English Channel coast at the Dorset/Devon border.

In the early 1960's the town's railway station was closed as part of the Beeching cuts. The town lies 2 miles south of the A35.

The character of Lyme Regis is late Georgian, The town's central streets are full of charming buildings several of which are from the late eighteenth century. The modest esplanade and the Cobb are the heart of the town's attractions. The Cobb was famously portrayed in the film The French Lieutenant's Woman starring Meryl Streep and is also featured in Jane Austen's novel Persuasion (1818).

The main attractions are the Town Mill , which has a year-round programme of events and still produces the flour used in the mill's bakery. St Michael the Archangel  parish church is situated above Church Cliff and dominates the old town. The Philpot Museum, which houses a large collection of local memorabilia, historical items and exhibits concerning the local geological and palaeontological treasures. Lyme Regis is on the Jurrasic Coast, a UNESCO World Heritage site, and as the coastline is subject to large landslips the Jurrasic age fossils are regularly exposed and can be found on the beaches of the bay.

Art, music and literature in Lyme Regis

 

Creative people have always been drawn to Lyme Regis in the county of Dorset. In 1725, the author Henry Fielding caused quite a stir when he failed to abduct the local heiress Sarah Andrew, later immortalised as ‘Sophie' in his novel Tom Jones.

 

James McNeill Whistler, the American artist, visited the town in 1895, aged 61, and he painted here two of his finest portraits, The Master-Smith of Lyme Regis and The Little Maid of Lyme. These two paintings are now in the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston, Massachusetts.

 

Jane Austen was a frequent visitor to the town, first arriving in 1803 when she was 29. She stayed in a seafront cottage (which can still be seen) where she wrote Persuasion, setting part of the novel in the town. Austen fans can see the steep steps - known as Granny's Teeth - where her character Louisa Musgrove fell.

 

The BBC's film of Persuasion released in 1995 was filmed partly in Lyme Regis.

 

Another visitor to the town was Beatrix Potter, and some of her watercolour illustrations for Little Pig Robinson were based on her views of the town.

 

The area is also enormously popular with a range of well-known and lesser-known artists, sculptors, potters and photographers. Because of this, there are many beautiful works of art available to view or buy around the exhibitions and galleries of Lyme Regis.

Dinosaurland Fossil Museum comprises a fossil museum, the fossil shop and the guided fossil hunting walks. Pecorama is an exhibition of model railways with the Beer Heights Light Railway and extensive gardens. Also there are a number of events located in or around the Marine Theatre. The Lyme Regis Jazz Festival  takes place between 3rd-5th July and the Lyme Regis Arts Festival  with events all round the town is staged in September.

In 2005 work began on a £16 milliion scheme to stabilise the cliffs and protect the town from coastal erosion. Lyme Regis's main beach was reconstructed and re-opened in July 2006 in time for the summer holiday season.

Lyme Regis is an attractive tourist destination with many hotels, guest houses, bed & breakfast rooms, eateries, gift shops and period characterful tea-rooms.

The town has a busy calender of annual events, including the Lyme Regatta which takes place over a whole week from 1st -8th August and includes outdoor movies, parades, games such as egg tosses and rubber duck races on the River Lym as well as fireworks. Between 22-24 May there is the Lyme Regis Fossil Festival and Mary Anning Day. This years theme is "Evolution Rocks". The traditional conger cuddling event takes place during Lifeboat Week from 18 to 26 July and at 8pm each Tuesday from July to September there is "Music by the Sea" on Marine Parade. Each November there is a lantern parade through the main street and the switching-on of the Christmas lights.