Lyme Regis, Dorset - Framed Picture - 11" x 14"

Lyme Regis is a coastal town in West Dorset.

In Saxon times, the abbots of Sherborne Abbey had salt-boiling rights on land adjacent to the River Lym, and the abbey once owned part of the town.

Lyme is mentioned in the Domesday Book of 1086. In the 13th century, it developed as one of the major British ports. A Royal Charter was granted by King Edward I in 1284 when 'Regis' was added to the town's name. The charter was confirmed by Queen Elizabeth I in 1591.

In 1644, during the English Civil War, Parliamentarians withstood an eight-week siege of the town by Royalist forces under Prince Maurice. The Duke of Monmouth landed at Lyme Regis at start of the Monmouth Rebellion in 1685.

The harbour wall, known as "The Cobb", features in Jane Austen's novel Persuasion, and in The French Lieutenant's Woman, a novel by British writer John Fowles, as well as the 1981 film of the same name, which was partly filmed in Lyme Regis.

The town was home to Admiral Sir George Somers, its one-time mayor and parliamentarian. He founded the English colonial settlement of the Somers Isles, better known as Bermuda. Lyme Regis is twinned with St. George's, Bermuda. In July 2015 Lyme Regis was also 'tripled' with Jamestown, Virginia to form the Historic Atlantic Triangle between Lyme, St George's and Jamestown.

On New Year's Day, 1915, the H.M.S. Formidable was torpedoed, the first major U-boat loss of World War I. A local lifeboat delivered bodies to the Pilot Boat Inn on Bridge Street. Lassie, the dog of the Inn's owner, licked the face of Seaman Cowan, believed dead, and seemingly aroused him back to life. The namesake of the cross-breed became a legend of books, radio, film and television.