Lyme Regis Lyme Regis Lyme Regis is a town in West Dorset, England, west of Dorchester and east of Exeter. Styled "The Pearl of Dorset", it lies at Lyme Bay on the English Channel coast at the Dorset–Devon border. It is noted for fossils found in cliffs and beaches on the Heritage Coast or Jurassic Coast – a World Heritage Site. The harbour wall known as "The Cobb" appears in Jane Austen's novel "Persuasion", in the John Fowles novel "The French Lieutenant's Woman", and in the 1981 film of that name, which was partly shot in the town. A former mayor and
Geology of Dorset to erosion as the chalk was folded and forced upwards. The early deposits from this period, found across South-East England, do not occur in Dorset. The small amounts found in Devon however, coupled with the many solution holes found across the Dorset chalk, suggests that erosion may have removed them. Some of the larger solution holes, known as dolines, are found on the heaths between Dorchester and Bere Regis. Near Briantspuddle is Culpepper's Dish, 86 metres wide and over 21 metres deep. The first deposits found from this period in Dorset are the Reading Formation clays. A sub-division of the