This year marks 25 years since the Jurassic Coast was designated a UNESCO World Heritage Site.
A quarter of a century ago, this April, the coastline that quite literally runs through our lives here in Lyme Regis, was recognised with global significance.
The Jurassic Coast stretches for 95 miles from Exmouth to Studland and tells a continuous geological story spanning 185 million years of the earth’s history.
For residents of Lyme Regis, this extraordinary landscape is not a distant attraction but part of everyday life, shaping our town, our heritage, and our history.
Few figures are more closely tied to this story than Mary Anning, born in Lyme Regis in 1799.
By the age of 12, Mary and her brother had uncovered the first complete ichthyosaur skeleton, followed years later by the first complete plesiosaur.
Her discoveries transformed scientific understanding of prehistoric life and continue to influence palaeontology today.
Fossils she uncovered are now displayed in major institutions, including the Natural History Museum in London.
Mary’s legacy is prominent in our town, from the Lyme Regis Museum, built on the site of her former home and fossil shop, to her statue on Gun Cliff Walk, overlooking the very cliffs where she uncovered some of the greatest natural history discoveries, right here on our doorstep.
The Jurassic Coast continues to make headlines, more recently in 2016, when local fossil hunter, Chris Moore discovered a previously unknown species of ichthyosaur following a storm near Lyme Regis.
The find became the subject of the BBC documentary Attenborough and the Sea Dragon, highlighting how this coastline still has secrets to be revealed.
One of the defining characteristics of the Jurassic Coast is that it is constantly changing.
Landslides, cliff falls and coastal erosion dramatically reshape the cliffs, and these natural processes also reveal the fossils and rock formations that make the coastline so valuable.
The Jurassic Coast is England’s only natural World Heritage Site and as we reflect on 25 years of World Heritage status, the Jurassic Coast stands as a reminder that Lyme Regis is not just a seaside town, but a place of international scientific importance that remains at the heart of the story, a living landscape that is constantly evolving and shaping our understanding of the world’s history for the past 25 years, and for the years to come.