Museum History
“A Remarkable Gem”, Sir David Attenborough.
A Museum at the heart of Lyme’s history
Built in 1902 Lyme Regis Museum welcomes thousands of visitors each year, delivering a year-round programme of exhibitions, talks, fossil walks, holiday activities and events.
The museum is situated close to the beaches where Mary Anning discovered her first ichthyosaur and is sited on the footprint of her first home and fossil shop. The museum’s displays and exhibitions offer an insight into the town’s remarkable history and the fascinating geology of the surrounding coast. It stands on the town’s old sea wall, in one of the oldest parts of the town, adjacent to the Guildhall in Cockmoile Square. This area was also the location for the town’s gaol and was a crowded bustling centre with houses like those which can still be glimpsed up the alleyways in Bridge Street and Coombe Street. One of them was the house where Mary Anning was born and where she first sold fossils.
The Philpot legacy and the founding of the Museum
The Museum was built in 1902 by Thomas E D Philpot the nephew of Elizabeth Philpot who was a close friend of Mary Anning’s. Designed by George Vialls, an architect known for designing eclestiastical buildings, the museum is mixture of styles. Sadly, on completion the building stood empty for several years and then during the First World War it served as a Red Cross depot. However, in 1920 Caroline Philpot (the niece of Thomas Philpot), gave the museum to the town, and in March 1921 it opened to the public with displays of Fossils, Archaeology and Natural History.
Building the collection and early Curators
Dr Wyatt Wingrave was the first honorary Curator, and he was soon joined by WD Lang, a former curator from the Natural History Museum, and together they put the museum on a sound footing and established the iconic fossil and geology collection.
Challenges and revival in the 20th Century
During the Second World War, the Museum was used as an Air Raid Precaution (ARP) post, and post-war it suffered due to a lack of funding and professional input, but by the early 1960s a group of local people, including the glass engraver Laurence Whistler, photographer Roger Mayne, and the writer John Fowels came together to help revive and secure the Museum’s future. John Fowles became the honorary Curator in 1978, and he led many developments, including setting up the Friends of Lyme Regis Museum charity and establishing a succession of honorary Curators to run the museum. He also helped fundraise for the repairs and restoration of the building that led to the Museum winning the prestigious Gulbenkian Award for best small museum in 1999.
A modern Museum for a historic town
The Museum continued to thrive and in 2016 the current building was extended, with the new Mary Anning Wing, designed by architect Robert Battersby (Architecton), and opened in 2017 by Sir David Attenborough, a long-time supporter of the Museum. The Museum is now run by a small team of professional staff and a dedicated team of volunteers.