We were more interested in shrimps than fossils
ADMITTEDLY it was many, many years ago, but when I was a kid at school I can’t remember ever learning about fossils.
I had no idea that the road in which I lived, Anning Road, was named after Lyme’s famous fossiler, Mary Anning until I was much older.
Of course, I might not have been paying attention (I rarely was according to my old school reports), but I have checked with some of my former classmates and they can’t remember being taught anything about what we now know as the Jurassic Coast.
The only time we went down back beach was to go shrimping on Sunday afternoons with our dads.
Today, of course, the earth sciences form a much more important part of the educational curriculum.
These days the very mention of the word dinosaur sends kids into near hysterics which makes the town’s annual fossil festival a must event for local schools.
I spent some time down at the festival marquees on Friday when nearly 500 schoolchildren from around the area proved that learning can be fun.
The fact that they were being tutored in the most effective and subtle ways by some of the top brains in the world will probably have escaped them.
What amazed me was the fun that the scientists and professors clearly got from passing on their knowledge.
As well as the educational aspect, there can be no denying that what happened on the cliffs in Lyme Regis millions of years ago is now big business.
Lyme and Charmouth are at the very heart of the Jurassic Coast, attracting tens of thousands of visitors to our shores every year. It is likely to get bigger.
A whole new cottage industry has built up around fossil collecting, and this was most evident with the various collectors doing a roaring business in one of the fossil festival marquees.
Films, talks, street entertainment and dozens of fossil walks completed the weekend.
It’s always difficult to assess how many people are attracted to Lyme by such events, especially when they are held over a Bank Holiday.
Last year’s festival was held over the Whitsun Bank Holiday in glorious weather.
This year’s event was three weeks earlier and the weather was not so kind. There were less people in the town but it seemed to me the fossil festival was doing even better business.
This year the organisers made a real effort to quantify the number of visitors by placing a sticker on everyone who went into the marquee. They also produced 5,000 programmes and it seemed to me most of these had gone by Sunday morning.
The festival, of course, is part of the wide-ranging remit undertaken by the Lyme Regis Development Trust. One of LRDT’s long term strategies is to capitalise on Lyme’s natural assets and to build a 130-bed Jurassic Coast Field Studies centre in the town.
This facility, if it comes about, will create year-round opportunities for both learning and meaningful employment as well as promoting more widely the study and understanding of our natural history. As a forerunner to this idea various courses have been staged in Lyme with parties staying at the former Victoria Hotel.
Well done to all those who worked so hard in organising the festival. There were a number of frustrating hiccups behind the scenes that the punters were not aware of but that happens with any big event.
Festival director Kimberly Clarke and her team will be regrouping and looking to get an early start on next year’s event.
And another feather in Lyme’s well plumed fossiler’s hat will be the festival being appointed the launch event for the 2012 Jurassic Coast Earth Festival as part of the Olympic summer.
Lyme link to election story in Canadian press
IN last week’s Lyme Matters I wrote about bizarre references to Lyme Regis in the national press.
Here’s another one.
The town featured prominently in an article on the general election which has appeared in one of Canada’s leading publications, the National Post.
One of their journalists, John Ivison, travelled to the UK to reserach a piece on the general election and the first stop on his country-wide tour was Lyme.
Why?
Because, apparently, his mother was, Anne White, was born in the town.
This is how his story began:
“LYME REGIS, ENGLAND -- It's a warm spring afternoon amid the palm trees that overlook Lyme Bay on the Dorset coast. The Jurassic Coast stretches as far as the eye can see -- golden-topped blue lias rock that regularly crumbles into the sea, giving up its paleological treasures in the process.
“Fishing and leisure boats bob gently in Lyme harbour, protected by a 16th-century seawall, the Cobb, made famous by Meryl Streep in The French Lieutenant's Woman. A generation later, millions of men lament that a rogue breaker didn't sweep her into the English Channel and thus spare them Mamma Mia.
“Lyme is a picture-postcard tourist town of 4,000 where my mother was brought up. I'm here as part of a personal odyssey to take a closer look at early 21st-century Britain on the eve of what promises to be a milestone general election. This is my first stop on a cross-country tour of the places I knew well to see how they have fared under Labour since I emigrated to Canada one year after Tony Blair became prime minister.
“I wander along the recently restored Victorian front to visit an old churchyard overlooking the sea, where my grandparents are buried. Looking across the harbour brings back memories of long, hot 1970s summers on the beach, mackerel fishing trips and early mornings helping my grand father deliver milk door to door.”
The article is accompanied by a picture postcard view of Lyme and Mr Ivison goes on to wax lyrical about the quality of life in Lyme Regis and why most people in our town are “happy with their lot”.
Oliver Letwin will certainly be hoping so tomorrow (Thursday).
Mr Iveson also made contact with local historian Ken Gollop on his visit to Lyme Regis.
- You can read the article in full by going to the website www.nationalpost.com
Event of the Week
MOST definitely the black tie awards ceremony we were invited to last week by local radio station Wessex FM.
The station is based in Dorchester and covers most of West and South Dorset but, unfortunately, the signal does not come as far Lyme.
But with papers in Bridport, Dorchester and Weymouth, we were delighted to sponsor one of the categories in their Local Heroes awards, staged at the plush Boat That Rocks restaurant in Portland.
We were invited to a splendid three-course dinner followed by the presentation of ten awards to local heroes nominated by their listeners.
I was accompanied by Jackie, Alison King, who organises all our promotional activity, and Stuart Broom, my life-long friend (and former Anning Road resident) who retired after 40 years in the aviation industry to become the general manager of our Dorset titles.
As we are all sports mad in the office, we selected the category for sportsperson or sports achievement and were delighted when Paul Blake was selected as winner.
Paul is no ordinary sportsman. A twin, he was born with no blood and was very seriously ill after birth, leaving him as a quadraplegic.
He had many battles to fight as a child and being one of six children there were times that Paul must have thought life had dealt him a very poor hand.
But there was one thing Paul could do, despite his disabilities - and that was run.
Now he is one of the most promising gold medal prospects for the 2010 Paralympics in the 800 metres, having recorded the fastest time in the world this year.
Paul was one of the most charming young men I have met, a truly inspiration figure to young people.
Coincidentally, he and his family lived in Lyme in Uplyme Road for a short period before moving to Dorchester.
His father, also Paul Blake, is an actor and appeared in the very first Star Wars film as “Greedo”. They are a lovely family.
Well done to Wessex FM for organising a sparkling evening and a very emotional occasion for the award winners.
www.viewfromonline.co.uk
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