Dinosaurland Fossil Museum

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.

Dinosaurland Fossil Museum
Location of Dinosaurland Fossil Museum in Dorset
LocationLyme Regis, Dorset
Coordinates50°43′33″N 2°56′02″W
Built1750-1755
ArchitectJohn Whitty
Listed Building – Grade I
Official nameCongregational Church
Designated31 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

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. Historic England. "Congregational Church, Coombe Street, Lyme Regis, West Dorset, Dorset (1278935)". National Heritage List for England. Retrieved 20 May 2010.
  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. 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 Archived 2012-07-13 at Archive.today, VisitBritain, UK.
  8. Dinosaurland Fossil Shop, Lyme Regis, Dorset, UK.
  9. Dinosaurland Fossil Museum in Dorset, Visitor World, UK.
  10. Lyme Regis, Panoromic Earth Archived 2010-07-22 at the Wayback Machine.
  11. "Forecourt Wall at Congregational Church, Lyme Regis". British Listed Buildings.
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