COLLECTIONS & RESEARCH

Local History

  • Cover from one of the contemporary accounts of the Siege of Lyme

    Civil War and Rebellion

    On two occasions in the 17th century the Dorset coastal town of Lyme Regis sprang into national prominence.

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  • Tessarae from the Holcombe Villa

    Early Lyme Regis

    There were very early settlements near  Lyme Regis. This article will tell you about them.

    By Max Hebditch after Jo Draper.

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  • Advertising card for the first photographer to set up in business in Lyme Regis

    Ethnic Minorities in Dorset

    Many people think that ethnic minorities in Dorset are recent – that the first black person arrived in the Second World War with the American forces. In fact there were Africans in Dorset from the early 17th century, whilst Jews and gypsies have lived in the county for many centuries.

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  • History of Lyme in Museum Objects

    In 2010 Neil MacGregor, Director of the British Museum, presented a series on BBC Radio 4 entitled The History of the World in a Hundred Objects, based on material in the British Museum’s collection. Lyme Regis Museum complemented the programmes with a series of talks:…

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  • Gas Industry in Lyme Regis

    Industrial Lyme

    A series of papers about historic industries in Lyme Regis and the Lim Valley by Richard Bull.

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  • Portrait of John Gould

    John Gould

    John Gould John Gould FRS, a famous son of Lyme who became a leading ornithologist and influenced Charles Darwin’s great theory

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  • Haymaking in the 1920s

    Lyme Regis Farming Project

    There is a strong tradition of research at Lyme Regis Museum and each year new topics are tackled. In 2007, two volunteers at the museum, Graham Davies and Ken Gollop, decided to research the farms of the Lim Valley on the Dorset/Devon border with a view to mounting an exhibition.

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  • Original frontpiece of The Lymiad

    Lymiad

    A unique book only available from Lyme Regis museum
    “A poem in the form of Letters from Lyme to a friend at Bath written during the autumn of 1818”

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  • William Buckland, palaeontologist

    Notable People of Lyme

    Lyme Regis in Dorset has connections with an unusually rich array of distinguished personalities. Some were born here, some came for a visit, some came to stay.

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  • George Vialls and his wife

    People and Places

    A series of papers about the people and buildings of Lyme Regis

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