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 around the Dorset and Devon border, although these may have been transported here with the other river deposits. Chesil Bank a long barrier beach stretching from West Bay to Portland, was created 10,000 years ago, when sea levels rose at the end of the last ice age. The Variscan orogeny is the oldest event for which there is evidence in Dorset, forming a major series of thrust faults in Carboniferous and older rocks. These thrusts trend west–east, dip moderately towards the south and have controlled later basin development and subsequent phases of inversion. During the Permo-Triassic the area was affected