Lyme Regis Cemetery is the principal

cemetery A cemetery, burial ground, gravesite or graveyard is a place where the remains of dead people are buried or otherwise interred. The word ''cemetery'' (from Greek , "sleeping place") implies that the land is specifically designated as a buri ...

in the English town of

Lyme Regis Lyme Regis is a town in west Dorset, England, west of Dorchester and east of Exeter. Sometimes dubbed the "Pearl of Dorset", it lies by the English Channel at the Dorset–Devon border. It has noted fossils in cliffs and beaches on the Herita ...

Dorset Dorset ( ; archaically: Dorsetshire , ) is a county in South West England on the English Channel coast. The ceremonial county comprises the unitary authority areas of Bournemouth, Christchurch and Poole and Dorset (unitary authority), Dors ...

. Estimates for the number of burials in the cemetery range from 3,570 to over 5,000, nearly half of which may today be

unmarked In linguistics and social sciences, markedness is the state of standing out as nontypical or divergent as opposed to regular or common. In a marked–unmarked relation, one term of an opposition is the broader, dominant one. The dominant defau ...

. It was opened on 16 November 1856 as a replacement for the graveyard surrounding

St Michael the Archangel ST, St, or St. may refer to: Arts and entertainment * Stanza, in poetry * Suicidal Tendencies, an American heavy metal/hardcore punk band * Star Trek, a science-fiction media franchise * Summa Theologica, a compendium of Catholic philosophy an ...

– Lyme Regis'

parish church A parish church (or parochial church) in Christianity is the church which acts as the religious centre of a parish. In many parts of the world, especially in rural areas, the parish church may play a significant role in community activities, ...

– which had long suffered from

erosion Erosion is the action of surface processes (such as water flow or wind) that removes soil, rock, or dissolved material from one location on the Earth's crust, and then transports it to another location where it is deposited. Erosion is distin ...

due to its close proximity to the sea.

History

Initially, the principal place of burial was at the cemetery surrounding St Michael the Archangel, Lyme Regis' parish church. However, due to its close proximity to the sea, the cemetery had started to erode away, losing many burials to the sea. Because of this, in the 1850s it was decided that a new cemetery would be constructed by Charmouth Road. A conveyance with the landowner was arranged in February 1856, and the ground was consecrated by the

Bishop of Salisbury The Bishop of Salisbury is the ordinary of the Church of England's Diocese of Salisbury in the Province of Canterbury. The diocese covers much of the counties of Wiltshire and Dorset. The see is in the City of Salisbury where the bishop's seat ...

that same year, with the first burial occurring on 16 November. Soon after, two chapels were constructed, one for

Church of England The Church of England (C of E) is the established Christian church in England and the mother church of the international Anglican Communion. It traces its history to the Christian church recorded as existing in the Roman province of Britain ...

services and another for

Dissenters A dissenter (from the Latin ''dissentire'', "to disagree") is one who dissents (disagrees) in matters of opinion, belief, etc. Usage in Christianity Dissent from the Anglican church In the social and religious history of England and Wales, and ...

( Nonconformists); only the Church of England chapel is still open for services today. The original plan was revised in 1870 to allow for more burials. Shrubs and trees were also planted. Another expansion was required to the west side, which was consecrated by the

Bishop of Sherborne The Bishop of Sherborne is an episcopal title which takes its name from the market town of Sherborne in Dorset, England. The see of Sherborne was established in around 705 by St Aldhelm, the Abbot of Malmesbury. This see was the mother diocese o ...

in 1935.Humphrey, Fred (May 2020
Lyme Regis Cemetery – An Introduction
''Research Team''.

Lyme Regis Museum Lyme Regis Museum (official name Lyme Regis Philpot Museum) is situated in the town of Lyme Regis on the Jurassic Coast in Dorset, England. It is a registered charity under English law. The museum building was commissioned in 1901 by Thomas ...

. Retrieved 21 July 2021. In 2020, the council closed the entrances via King's Way and Elizabeth Close in order to stop the cemetery being used as a public

thoroughfare A thoroughfare is a primary passage or way as a transit route through regularly trafficked areas, whether by road on dry land or, by extension, via watercraft or aircraft. On land, a thoroughfare may refer to anything from a multi-lane highway ...

Notable burials

The cemetery allows anyone regardless of connection to Lyme Regis to be buried, however non-residents pay higher fees. Notable burials include: *

Elizabeth Philpot Elizabeth Philpot (1780–1857) was an early 19th-century British fossil collector, amateur palaeontologist and artist who collected fossils from the cliffs around Lyme Regis in Dorset on the southern coast of England. She is best known today fo ...

, fossil collector, known for her collaborations with

Mary Anning Mary Anning (21 May 1799 – 9 March 1847) was an English fossil collector, dealer, and palaeontologist who became known around the world for the discoveries she made in Jurassic marine fossil beds in the cliffs along the English Channel ...

Georgina Castle Smith Georgina Castle Smith (née Georgina Meyrick, pseudonym Brenda, 9 May 1845 – 27 December 1933) was a popular, productive English writer of didactic children's books. Some of her books highlighted the social needs of "street arabs" (homeless chi ...

, children's writer The cemetery also contains the

war graves War is an intense armed conflict between State (polity), states, governments, Society, societies, or paramilitary groups such as Mercenary, mercenaries, Insurgency, insurgents, and militias. It is generally characterized by extreme violenc ...

of 17 Commonwealth service personnel, 10 of which are from

World War I World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, the United States, and the Ottoman Empire, with fightin ...

and 7 from

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...

.Lyme Regis Cemetery – cemetery details

Commonwealth War Graves Commission The Commonwealth War Graves Commission (CWGC) is an intergovernmental organisation of six independent member states whose principal function is to mark, record and maintain the graves and places of commemoration of Commonwealth of Nations mil ...

. Retrieved 21 July 2021.

References

{{reflist

External links

Lyme Regis Cemetery
at

Find A Grave Find a Grave is a website that allows the public to search and add to an online database of cemetery records. It is owned by Ancestry.com. Its stated mission is "to help people from all over the world work together to find, record and present fin ...

Cemeteries in Dorset 1856 establishments in England