Dorset’s museums have had a fairly tough time during lockdown and are really looking forward to reopening to the public over the next few months.
Lyme Regis Museum is built on the site of the home of Mary Anning, the world’s first great fossil hunter and celebrated its 100th birthday in March this year. The museum contains fossils found by Mary Anning and Elizabeth Philpot as well as one of scientific legend William Buckland’s famous plaster ‘shark poos’. They also have spectacular fossils discovered in more recent times including the head of a huge ichthyosaur. However the museum has a lot more than just fossils and, for example, their Writers’ Gallery contains Jane Austen’s cockade and material owned by the Austen family. (Much of Jane Austen’s novel, Persuasion is set in Lyme).