Lyme Regis - June '16

[abctriplets]

This summer we took a rare vacation away from the kids, and headed across the pond to England. While the focus of the trip was on mudlarking on the Thames (finding everything from a Roman pottery fragment, 100-year old coins, a hammered silver coin, tons of pottery shards from the 1400s, clay pipes from the 17th-19th centuries, Tudor pins & nails, etc.) and on walking across the country on Hadrian's Wall Path, we decided to take a day out of the journey to do a little fossil hunting - a first for us. We decided to visit Lyme Regis, on the southern coast of England, where Mary Anning once searched for fossils in the early 1800s.

 

We rented a car in Salisbury, and drove down to Lyme Regis, a two-hour drive away. This was the most challenging part of the trip, as we had never driven purposefully on the wrong side of the road. But it turned out the skinny roads were more daunting than the change of driving habits. We felt constantly pressed in on the left side by the encroaching hedges or ancient stone walls. Needless to say, we made it there alive.

We had booked a walk through the Lyme Regis Museum (at £11 each), and we found the museum (still closed, in the early morning) after a short walk from the parking lot. It was a chilly morning, so we wore layers, and brought a backpack and our hiking shoes so that we'd be prepared for any uneven terrain. While we waited for the group to gather (~15 or so), we admired the view. The English Channel was calm and flat.

The guides then walked us down to the end of the sea wall walkway, and gathered us all around for a 30-minute instructional talk. They discussed the types of fossils that we could find, how stratigraphy works, the dangers of the eroding cliffs, the ancient flora and fauna of the region, etc. They said that the fossil-finding would be a bit rough today, as the beach is best after a nice storm or two (or in the winter time). We had just gotten through a lengthy spell of amazing weather, which meant that there most likely wouldn't be any amazing fossils.

We then walked down a short stairway onto the beach. 

 

 

[ynot]

[abctriplets]

The beach was nice. Since the water was calm, you could go right up to the muddy edge, but there wasn't much there to be found. Instead, we focused our attention on the smaller gravelly bits a bit away from the water. The guides kept us clear of the large cliffs to our right, as those were prone to collapse

We spent about three hours meandering down the beach, looking for finds, and chatting with our guides. I wish I had taken more pictures of the area, but the landscape did shift as we went on. Further down it shifted to more of a limestone rock, that was scattered about in large chunks, and later the cliffs were smaller so we could get closer to the packed mud walls to find fossils embedded in them.

Again, the finds weren't that great. We were impressed with the amount of worn beach glass, as that's not something we have at all in Virginia. It turned out that the locals had been dumping their trash at the top of the cliff (since it was unusable/unsafe for anything else), and after decades and decades of weathering, it had eventually fallen into the sea. One of the guides found a 19th century pipe bowl.

As to the fossils themselves, we found ammonites and belemnites, and some crinoid stems. The ammonites we picked up were in very soft rock, but others in the group found better preserved copies in harder stone that could later be cleaned up nicely. And one person found a small, worn vertebra. We also found really cool pyrite extrusions that looked like tiny mushrooms.

 

There were very large worn ammonites in the rocks, and our guides pointed out some trace fossils from worm burrows/tracks. The best part was at the very end of the walk, as we were able to pick out a large number of belemnites from the hill wall. But again, we were excited most of all because this was Lyme Regis, and because we were actually finding fossils. Had we done this at any other point in our fossil-collecting career, we wouldn't have had as much fun. (and it did pale in comparison to the archaeological artifacts we were finding on the Thames)

After the guided walk ended, we slowly made our way back to town, and stopped by the Lyme Regis Museum. It was a small, cute museum, with a nice display of fossils and historical items from the area. Hanging in the front window was a replica of the ichthyosaur skull that Mary Anning had found (though I think technically her brother had found it). All in all, worth the trip, and was an enjoyable experience.

 

Tomorrow I'll try to photograph our finds, as all I had on my phone was the crushed shell fossil that we photographed before leaving behind.

 

 

[ynot]

Wonderful trip report!

Thanks for sharing.

Tony

[Ludwigia]

Thanks for posting this. It is very informative, particularly for anybody who hasn't been there before. Did you know that the famous tongue-twister, "she sells sea shells..." is about Mary Anning?

[belemniten]

Great trip with wonderful pictures !

Cant wait to see your finds

 

[smt126]

Great trip report. It sounds like you guys had a great time. With triplets I'm sure it was great to finally get in a vacation by yourselves. Sometimes I dream about a vacation without kids... it sounds relaxing lol.

[Max-fossils]

Great report!

Ah, reading this brings tons of memories back to when I went to Lyme Regis in April 2014... It was an amazing experience, and I'm not surprised you liked it too. I really wish to go there once again and find more. Also, do you remember the name of the guide? Mine was paleontologist Paddy Howe, he was really great! 

Can't wait for the finds tomorrow!

 

Best regards,

 

Max

[Darktooth]

Great report and pics! Very interesting, thanks for sharing with us.

[Gizmo]

Very nice, thanks for posting! 

[Pagurus]

I greatly enjoyed reading your trip report. Lyme Regis is near the top of my vacation list, though getting there could be a challenge. I don't think my rental car would survive the drive. 

[digit]

Great report--hoping to see some photos of your finds as soon as you locate the images.

 

I'd never heard of mudlarking before but now that I have it is (of course) on my bucket list. Would love to see images of the antiquities you found around the Thames.

 

Cheers.

 

-Ken

[abctriplets]

On 12/4/2016 at 11:10 AM, digit said:

I'd never heard of mudlarking before but now that I have it is (of course) on my bucket list. Would love to see images of the antiquities you found around the Thames.

 

Still trying to track down my ammonites and belemnites, but they aren't anything to write home about. Here's some of the mudlarking finds. 

 

As for mudlarking, I will stress that you now need a permit, that there are dangers (6-foot incoming tidal surge, various diseases, rusty nails), and that you have to report significant finds for recording, report any treasure, and get an export license to bring it all home.

[jpc]

Mudlarking?  I'm not sure I understand fully.  Does this mean walking around in the low tide mud of the rivers and seeing what is there?  Does it involve digging?  

[Ridgehiker]

My mother is from Battersea in London. Whenever we were  ever along a coast 'beachcombing', she would call it mudlarking.  During the War she and her friends used to go mudlarking along the Thames looking through debris from the bombing raids.

[abctriplets]

31 minutes ago, jpc said:

Mudlarking?  I'm not sure I understand fully.  Does this mean walking around in the low tide mud of the rivers and seeing what is there?  Does it involve digging?  

 

Correct. The Thames is a tidal river, and so twice a day the water level drops 6 feet and exposes the mud banks, full of a few thousand years of detritus. Before, you were allowed to pick up items as "eyes only" on most of the foreshore, but now you have to buy a permit to even do that. I believe the permit also allows you to "scrape" down a few centimeters (which is what the previous purchasable permit allowed), but there are certain historically protected areas where that is limited. And then if you actually want to "dig" there's a more lengthy/expensive process to get permission. The term harkens back to the Victorian age, when little kids/orphans scoured the shores for anything cast off of ships that they could find/use/sell in order to survive.

[Barerootbonsai]

Mud larking is great have done it several times and places.  I posted in portishead on the forum.  Have also mudlarked on the Thames. And Torrige which in Devonian means fast and rough.

 

i was in Lyme Regis last week for the day, Charmouth, Seatown and Kimerage.  I will post soon still a Sorting.

 

Great  report and really great you loved it.  The Jurassic coast covers Triassic  (west) through to Cretatious in the east.  Apparently it is unparalleled in the world.

 

Will be watching in antis....................pation. 

[squali]

Great trip report thanks for posting.

quick question regarding your artifacts displays.  Are the pins drilled into the objects to hold them?  I can't make out how some are supporting the specimens otherwise.

[abctriplets]

7 hours ago, squali said:

Great trip report thanks for posting.

quick question regarding your artifacts displays.  Are the pins drilled into the objects to hold them?  I can't make out how some are supporting the specimens otherwise.

 

Nope. Just insect pins jammed in tightly to hold them in place. Think I'll try the same thing with the fossils...if I can find where the heck they are.  Frames are from Michael's.

[Ridgehiker]

On 2016-12-11 at 3:38 PM, abctriplets said:

 

Nope. Just insect pins jammed in tightly to hold them in place. Think I'll try the same thing with the fossils...if I can find where the heck they are.  Frames are from Michael's.

 

I will use insect mounting pins in a Riker Mount.  The cover tends to hold most specimens in place but a strategically placed pin here or there helps to stabilize the occasional specimen that shifts a bit.