Depending on the outcome of the weather forecast this was going to determine the weekend destination. As I believed my weather forecasting abilities were better than the Met Office we ended up at Lyme Regis for a day of fossil hunting. Of course, this turned out to be in the pouring rain. Obviously I will not be changing my day job any time soon.
Located just under 2 hours away from Bristol, Lyme Regis is located in the South where the county of Dorset meets the English Channel. It is a charming fishing village known for among many things, its fossils. During this trip I learnt about a woman named Mary Anning who is said to have put fossils on the map in this region. Her father was a keen collector and their family sold the fossils to try to make ends meet. She has a very interesting life story should you have the chance to read more about her. A little side note is that Mary is the lady we speak about in the tongue twister “she sells sea shells by the sea shore…”
I figured our fossil collecting expedition would be as fruitful as our gold panning trips in Australia. Read here – a few grains of gold were found at Sofala and Hill End. We were very surprised though how quickly we found the fossils. I have attached a few pics to show you. The very first bit of clay that Steve picked up actually had a shell fossil inside. There were many other stunning examples in the large boulders such as the outline of the ammonite on the rock. The fossils in this area are from the Cretaceous and Jurrasic periods.
Before I went down to Lyme Regis I did wonder how they stopped the area from being stripped of such amazing history. However after having seen it for myself, there are so many of them everywhere that you tend to go “oh theres another one” and walk on by. This doesn’t detract though from the sight of them. The cliff face that they fall down from is a dark gray in colour and very slimy to pick up however the fossils come in all sorts of stone and clay. Most amazingly are the array of colours of the stone, many transulent whites, pinks, greys, purples.
Also this area features quite a bit in Jane Austen’s books. The Cobb has been in a couple of the BBC adaptations of her books. It was originally built to provide a manmade port for ships and has since been rebuilt in Portland stone (1900’s) and was joined up to the land at some earlier point. There is quite a drop either side and a rather big slant on top so you have to be pretty careful walking on it. In a “safety conscience” Britain I am so glad to see they haven’t yet banned people from walking on this!
We really enjoyed our day down here even after having been drenched through to the skin.