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Open Ground · Open ground

Charmouth & the Jurassic Coast

Fossil shore · keep what washes out, Charmouth & Lyme Regis, Dorset, England
ACCESSIBLE
Evidence status: Historical tradition. no documented source (historical tradition); legal status unknown (manual verification recommended). This account is presented as historical tradition, not verified fact. Manual verification recommended. Repository evidence: 0 sources · 0 timeline events · 0 media items · legal unknown · view on the Map Evidence on file: historical tradition

Charmouth & the Jurassic Coast: still unexplained.

Ammonites, belemnites, and the chance of an ichthyosaur after a storm

The law of this ground: West Dorset Fossil Collecting Code, collect loose fossils on the foreshore (yours to keep); cliff digging is dangerous and forbidden; important finds offered to a museum first.
The subject
developing the photograph…
The manifest
Ammonites, belemnites, and the chance of an ichthyosaur after a storm
The account

Mary Anning found her first ichthyosaur on these cliffs at twelve, and the sea is still paying. The grey ledges shed ammonites with every tide; after a winter storm the foreshore glitters with them. Follow the collecting code, take what the sea has loosened, never hammer the cliff, and the fossils you gather on the beach are yours.

Leads, where the trail points now
  • What you can keep: Ammonites, belemnites, and the chance of an ichthyosaur after a storm. Confirm the site's current rules and any day fee before you go.
  • Where: Charmouth & Lyme Regis, Dorset, England. West Dorset Fossil Collecting Code, collect loose fossils on the foreshore (yours to keep); cliff digging is dangerous and forbidden; important finds offered to a museum first.
  • Best practice: record anything notable, leave the ground as you found it, and check the latest access notices before you travel.
What the record holds

What remains open

  • No period map of the site has surfaced.
  • No contemporary press coverage has been found.
What we know, and what we don't
Established

No documentary claim is yet established. The account rests on tradition.

Still open
  • No period map of the site has surfaced.
  • No contemporary press coverage has been found.
The evidence room

No documentary or visual exhibits have been located yet. The trail below and the open leads are where this dossier grows next — every exhibit that enters here carries a source.

Where the trail points now
  • What you can keep: Ammonites, belemnites, and the chance of an ichthyosaur after a storm. Confirm the site's current rules and any day fee before you go.
  • Where: Charmouth & Lyme Regis, Dorset, England. West Dorset Fossil Collecting Code, collect loose fossils on the foreshore (yours to keep); cliff digging is dangerous and forbidden; important finds offered to a museum first.
  • Best practice: record anything notable, leave the ground as you found it, and check the latest access notices before you travel.
  • Search Library of Congress + DPLA (IIIF) for period cartography of the site.
  • Run Chronicling America for dated newspaper mentions.
  • Query NARA for archival records tied to the site.

Have a source, a map, or a clipping? Add a lead and it enters the record with its citation.

Start the hunt here
The first leads, so no one walks in cold.
Sources and the record
Related case files

The full hunt kit

Starting brief, what's known and disputed, evidence timeline, source list, map card, coordinate-confidence and legal-access summaries, and a field checklist, free with a Fellowship account.

Latest Word From the Newswire

Context, not proof. The dossier's own sources remain the evidence record.

Checking the wire…

Chart position 50.735°, -2.900° (approx.) View on the Map