When we were planning last spring's trip to England, we wanted a variety of places and experiences, and not all in big cities. And when it came to picking a less-urban area to stay, Mac's pictures of Dorset and the Jurassic Coast here on TravelGumbo just pulled us in. Here's a sample...
For me, a big piece of the lure was the chance to wander in small towns or villages, and in a classic English seaside resort; for my wife, a retired science teacher, there was also the lure of the ancient past. And from fellow teachers on a listserv, she homed in on Lyme Regis, a few miles west of our base in Weymouth.
Arriving in Lyme Regis, at the top, where streets are normal-size. Then, below, they begin to narrow down...and curve.
Go there, they said: there's a great small museum. And a lovely village. And there are fossil-hunting tours nearby. And there's the story of Mary Anning, the village girl with little education who became one of the world's authorities on marine fossils, right there in Lyme Regis.
And it was all true, with one sad exception.
Pretty village, with narrow streets and flowered yards. Wonderful museum, full not only of fossils and their lore but examples of local crafts and life and touching stories of the villagers' early experiences with modern (read 19th-century) life. Interesting material about Mary Anning.
But: no fossil-hunting except in a few interesting shops. We were there during half-term and just after a Bank Holiday, and found that all the tours had been booked months ahead. But still a great trip.
Note the warning about the overhanging building...important for the buses!
After a brief attempt to drive down to the museum, and finding that the traffic stops and waits while cars coming up from the shore go by, and then have a brief opportunity for down while the up traffic waits, we left the car in a lot and walked. Along the way we spotted this odd wooden device in the wall of a B&B; it turns out to be one of the oldest letter drops in England, dating to the 18th century when the inn was a coach stop on a postal route.
A few picturesque corners and lots of interesting buildings, we found our way to the museum and the Guild Hall opposite it. And, around the corner we got a quick glimpse of the real traffic jam. Yes, that's a huge double-decker bus in the middle of it all, and yes, it can make the corners...but I'm not really sure how!
The Guild Hall (brown and white) has been there since the 1500s, when Lyme was a significant Channel port. The museum was purpose-built around the turn of the 20th century.
Inside the museum, there's a wide variety of exhibits, focusing on the history both of Lyme Regis, and of Mary Anning and the growth of knowledge about that ancient past that's one of the hallmarks of 19th century science. As discussion grew about the origin of species and Darwinian evolution, the significance of the 'pre-historic record' became more important. Up to then, few had made serious studies of fossils; they were just curiosities.
Mary Anning, who had no formal scientific education, began collecting and classifying fossils to sell and help support herself and family; she became well known in geological circles and was consulted by many—although as a woman, she could not join the Geological Society and often was not credited for her work.
The museum's second floor is more involved with local history. Below, one of the most spectacular pieces, a polished giant ammonite, a Jurassic mollusc.
Outside the museum, next to the beach, the River Lym flows into the sea. This is actually a slightly new route for it; the terraced walk and walls just below it are a late 20th century structure that protects from flooding and protects the beach from pollution. The terrace conceals a large holding tank.
My wife, as an earth science teacher, collects sand samples wherever we go, but Lyme Regis didn't qualify for that collection: there's no sand on the beach!
Walking back up to the car, we stopped to look a bit more at the town and its assortment of mostly upscale shops and cafes (at least in the area near the museum). We also passed by pleasant gardens and a courtyard along the Lyme where craftspeople were at work, including this potter.
Comments (0)