Dinosaurland Fossil Museum

Dinosaurland Fossil Museum
Location of Dinosaurland Fossil Museum in Dorset
Location Lyme Regis, Dorset
Coordinates 50°43′33″N 2°56′02″W / 50.72583°N 2.93389°W / 50.72583; -2.93389Coordinates: 50°43′33″N 2°56′02″W / 50.72583°N 2.93389°W / 50.72583; -2.93389
Built 1750-1755
Architect John Whitty
Listed Building – Grade I
Official name: Congregational Church
Designated 31 January 1974[1]
Reference no. 404523
View of Coombe Street with the Dinosaurland building in the distance.
Ichthyosaurus fossil exhibit
Exhibit of Segnosaurus nest with eggs

Dinosaurland Fossil Museum (aka Dinosaurland) is a privately owned fossil museum in Lyme Regis, on the Jurassic Coast in Dorset, England.[2][3][4] The museum is located in a historic Grade I listed former congregational church building.

Museum

The museum, opened in 1989, is owned and run by Steve Davies, a former chief palaeontologist for BP.[5][6] It contains a collection of local marine fossils from the Jurassic period. The museum organizes guided fossil hunting walks.[7] There is a museum shop that sells fossils and minerals.[4][8]

The fossil collection is housed on the ground floor.[9] As well as local Jurassic fossils, there are dinosaurs from China. There are also modern shells and skeletons on display. The museum has a small collection of dinosaur fossils on show (such as a large dinosaur coprolite, a Megalosaurus skeleton and a Chinese dinosaur, of unknown genus).

Congregational Church

The museum is located on Coombe Street in a 250-year-old Grade I listed building that used to be a congregational church.[1] The church was built between 1750 and 1755 by John Whitty. It was where Mary Anning (1799–1847), an early fossil hunter, was baptised and later attended for worship.[10]

The two storey building has a hipped roof and rusticated quoins. The round-headed doorway has Doric pilasters on either side. There is a 19th-century addition to the left hand end of the building.[11]

See also

References

  1. 1 2 "Congregational Church, Coombe Street, Lyme Regis, West Dorset, Dorset". Images of England. English Heritage.
  2. ↑ David Else and Fionn Davenport, Great Britain, Lonely Planet, 2009. Page 309. ISBN 978-1-74104-491-1.
  3. ↑ Oliver Berry and Belinda Dixon, Devon, Cornwall & Southwest England, Lonely Planet, 2008. Page 161. ISBN 978-1-74104-873-5.
  4. 1 2 Thomas A. Hose, Geotourism: Appreciating the deep time of landscapes. In Marina Novelli (editor), Niche tourism: contemporary issues, trends and cases, Butterworth-Heinemann, 2005. ISBN 978-0-7506-6133-1.
  5. ↑ Fine example of a crinoid!, Midweek Herald, 14 November 2007.
  6. ↑ "Briefing: Dinosaur upgrade in Lyme". Geology Today. 14 (5): 167–168. 1998. doi:10.1046/j.1365-2451.1998.014005162.x.
  7. ↑ Dinosaurland — Lyme Regis, VisitBritain, UK.
  8. ↑ Dinosaurland Fossil Shop, Lyme Regis, Dorset, UK.
  9. ↑ Dinosaurland Fossil Museum in Dorset, Visitor World, UK.
  10. ↑ Lyme Regis, Panoromic Earth.
  11. ↑ "Forecourt Wall at Congregational Church, Lyme Regis". British Listed Buildings.
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