UKH

There isn't much fun to be had in the newspapers at present (unless you include Brexit schadenfreude) but this article I found very heartwarming on several fronts.

https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2021/jan/19/statue-fossil-hunter-mary-a...

That's a lovely story and I will definitely have to visit Lyme Regis, sometime soon. I can highly recommend Tracy Chevalier's novel about the life of Anning - Remarkable Creatures.

Thanks for the recommendation. There's also a film about her called Ammonite starring Kate Winslet and Saoirse Ronan which I need to find. 

I enjoyed the book too. Hadnt heard about the film - but just looked it up - to be released 26th March. (Maybe we'll be released then too ) 

It seems the film centres on a fictitious romantic relationship between Anning and Charlotte Murchison. Which might be interesting if people go expecting fossils and get lesbians.

OK, so the interest may not turn out to be entirely palaeontological!

So perhaps ammonite may have more than one meaning?

We 'did' Mary Anning in primary school (I grew up in Dorchester, admittedly before the Dinosaur Museum, but there's some great stuff in Dorset County Museum). We'd go fossil-hunting every summer at places like Lyme and Kimmeridge. Really interesting story.

I first went to Lyme a good few years back when our second had just been born.  We have a friend who owns a holiday cottage there.  I remember looking at the cliffs around me and just being vaguely disappointed "So much rock, and so few routes" *sigh*. 

I went back last summer and had a brilliant trip having got into fossil collecting over the intervening years, courtesy of a chance find at that well known South West venue  Sand Point.  This time I looked round and thought "So much rock, so many fossils".  I had a lovely time bimbling around the Ammonite pavement cracking rocks, and even found my very own Ammonite fossil sticking out of some of the blue lias clay.

Then there was a storm and we all went body boarding in Lyme bay.  Happy days!  Much love for the place.

FYI - Article from the British Journal of Historical Science

Mary Anning (1799-1847) of Lyme; 'the greatest fossilist the world ever knew' 

https://www.cambridge.org/core/services/aop-cambridge-core/content/view/S00....

The author used to be a professional Paleontologist specialising in ammonite stratigraphy before becoming interested in the History of Science in particular around the development of paleontology, evolution and the paradigm shift from ecclesiastical view of Earth History to the foundations of modern geology.  

My Great Grandmother lived in Lyme Regis and we used to visit somewhat regularly until she died. I always loved many things about Lyme Regis, the steep streets, picnics on the Cobb, the duck race, the tiny little arcades. But fossil hunting was always my favourite thing to do there. I remember Great Granny reading to my sister and me about Mary Anning and then hobbling down to the beach with us so we could find fossils of our own. It's great to see her getting some recognition (Mary Anning, not Great Granny!).

Lyme is a lovely spot, isn't it? It's a long time ago now, but I have vivid memories of the scenes of the Cobb in the film of The French Lieutenant's Woman, though I've forgotten the story. 

The Steve Etches collection is well worth a look if you're passing Kimmeridge.

Have you ever visited the Square and Compass in Worth Maltravers? It's possibly the only pub in the UK with its own fossil museum.