Exhibition Celebrating Lyme’s Surprising Industrial Past From 22nd February to 6th March, Lyme Regis Museum will be showcasing the town’s unexpected industrial past in a new exhibition at the Malthouse. ‘Industrial Lyme – An Unexpected History’, will look at Lyme’s industrial heritage which focused around the Lim Valley, from its factories and seven water mills to town services such as gas, water, sewerage, electricity and the now-vanished railway.
Once famous as a wool town, the amount of cloth exported from the Cobb once matched the large imports of wine. The town’s silk industry also has a fascinating history, with child labour its dark secret. Heavy industry also found an unlikely home in Lyme and iron stoves made in the town won prizes at the Great Exhibition of 1851 at Crystal Palace. Lyme cement was much sought-after by dock companies for underwater building and from Victorian times there was a large cement works and tile factory right on Monmouth Beach. Lyme also had an oil industry in the form of oil milled from linseed and there was even an unsuccessful attempt to find coal.
This fascinating exhibition has been researched and mounted by Lyme Regis Museum volunteers Richard Bull, Ken Gollop and Graham Davies, and includes many historic photographs and extensive new research.
Richard Bull will also be giving two special talks at the museum to accompany the exhibition. On Thursday 24th Feb at 2.30 he will be talking about “The Monmouth Beach Cement Works” and on Saturday 26th February at 2.30 he’ll tell the story of “The Search for Coal under Lyme”.
The exhibition is open from 10am – 4pm each day and admission is free. For more information about the museum and all its events visit www.lymeregismuseum.com
