Britain at its best: Inside the pretty seaside town of Lyme Regis – which boasts million-year-old fossils and a blooming restaurant scene

Once upon a time, before anyone had heard of dinosaurs, locals in Dorset used to stumble on strange-shaped stones on the beach – and sell them as curios.

The curved sea-creatures we know as ammonites they called ‘sea snakes’. As for belemnite molluscs, they named them, rather colourfully, ‘devil’s fingers’.

Later, it was realised they dated back millions of years – and many of these ‘curios’ are now displayed in the Natural History Museum.

It all happened on the shingle beaches and collapsing cliffs of the Jurassic Coast, near the pretty seaside town of Lyme Regis.

When I go with my other half, we can’t resist a spot of fossil-hunting. To this day, the coast keeps eroding, revealing relics of long-extinct species.

Pictured is Lyme Regis’s Dorset House townhouse where ‘breakfast is an event’

Above is the cute harbour in Lyme Regis, which lies on the Jurassic Coast

Prehistoric ammonite fossils (above) can be found on shingle beaches near Lyme Regis

We make our way to Monmouth Beach, from which the Duke of Monmouth once launched his ill-fated rebellion, finding it dotted with fossil-hunters. It’s an odd sight. Everyone creeps over the pebbles, staring downwards. Alas, we leave empty-handed.

Dorset House, our berth, is a gorgeous Lyme townhouse run by Jason Martin and his wife Lynn.

Breakfast is an event, with mouth-watering locally sourced ingredients. Every room has a chunky iron key, far preferable to malfunctioning key-cards.

And I’m thrilled to discover the coincidence that Jason is, like me, a fan of real tennis.

That’s the type of tennis Henry VIII played. It’s done indoors, with weird nooks and crannies you can thwack the ball at. It’s also the most beautiful of racquet sports. Of the handful of courts in England, the Hyde Tennis Club, near Lyme, is one of the best.

When Thomas visits Monmouth Beach (above) it’s ‘dotted with fossil hunters’, but he leaves empty-handed

Serene: Tourists relax on the beach and Lyme Regis promenade 

Thomas discovers Lyme Regis has a ‘blooming restaurant scene’

Real tennis aside, a highlight of any visit is the jam-packed, delightfully haphazard Lyme Regis Museum.

Here you will find a tabletop that once belonged to the Victorian paleontologist and raging eccentric, William Buckland; the strange thing is he made it out of coprolites (dinosaur droppings).

One of the less wayward acts of Buckland’s life was the financial aid he gave to the Lyme Regis fossil collector, Mary Anning.

She had a genius for finding them, but her achievements went largely unrecognised until recently. Now she is a heroine learned about in schools, and the subject of a slightly saucy film, Ammonite (2020), played by Kate Winslett.

Perhaps our most surprising discovery in Lyme is its blooming restaurant scene. Run by celebrity chef Mark Hix, the Oyster and Fish House serves tender, locally caught octopus with spicy patatas bravas: the best thing I eat while I’m in town.

Then there’s fish and chips, of course: for the very best look no further than the Hive Beach Cafe at nearby Burton Bradstock.

I can also vouch for the Coquilles St Jacques – scallops in potato and gruyere cheese – at the Millside. It’s phenomenal.

And you would probably have to be a fully grown plesiosaurus to eat your way through the lobster, prawns, crab cakes (and much else) of the restaurant’s imposing seafood platter.