Come To Lyme Regis: The Friendly Seaside Resort Where The Water Comes To Greet You

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COME to Lyme Regis, Dorset, they said. It’ll be genteel. This is where the dinosaurs holidayed. The town’s most famous residents are 180 million years old. The pace of life is slow. This is how the official website bills it:

An ancient town featured in the Domesday Book, Lyme Regis is home to a number of historical landmarks and educational attractions. From the watermill, which dates all the way back to the 14th century, to the beautiful St Michael’s Church and the fascinating Lepers Well, the picturesque and tranquil Lyme Regis is a great place to discover a lot that you didn’t know about the UK’s heritage.

At no point does it mention thrills and being pinned to a wall by massive waves. But it should. British seaside resorts can be dull places in winter, stuck beneath a low lugubrious sky hanging like a pendant wet knitted glove over a landscape of chained-up deckchairs, vending machines and regret.

But Lyme Regis is where John Fowles’ The French Lieutenant’s Woman gazed out to sea from The Cobb. And now you can relive that wonderful literary moment (also captured on film – see below) by getting soaking wet.