In an age where children are consumed by mass technology and spend hour upon hour indoors, has a love of outdoor exploration dissipated altogether? Not quite, according to Gransnet Dorset’s Local Editor Marion Spencer, who argues that Dorset might just be the perfect location for discovery on both a literal and a personal level.
Marion Spencer
Is fossil hunting the ideal family activity?
Posted on: Thu 16-Mar-17 10:25:33
(8 comments )
When so many people of all ages are up to their eyes in technology, isn’t it lovely that children can still take pleasure in the simple things, like looking for ‘treasure’ along our beautiful coastline? This is particularly true along the now much-publicised Jurassic Coast of Dorset, where, on fine day or foul, generations of would-be explorers have taken delight in scouring the beaches for the slightest sign of ancient remains. Local people have long known about these hidden gems and the joy of discovery whilst on a bracing walk in the sea air. Now many incomers have settled in Dorset’s villages and towns for their retirement thanks to their nostalgic memories of happy times spent on holidays in the area.
Fossil hunting can be a serious business, but for the average family it is just a case of enjoying the hunt, heads down, bottoms up and wrapped against the wind examining hundreds of pebbles in the hope of finding one to keep. Monmouth Beach in Lyme Regis is well-documented and still brings fresh pleasure to visitors every year. There is also an annual fossil festival and world famous museum. Its resident fossils set into the larger stones, meaning that everyone at least gets to see, if not take home, an ammonite or two, and the constant movement of the coastline means there is always that chance of a real discovery.
Fossil hunting seems to bring out the inner child and eccentric in all of us.
Only recently, the area hit headlines when the BBC brought Sir David Attenborough to the town when an Ichthyosaur fossil fell from the regularly weather-beaten cliffs and was rescued from the bay. Thanks to Hollywood making a love of dinosaurs ‘cool’, not just for geeks, even many grumpy teenagers are still happy to take off their ever-present headphones and join in some exploration. Fossil hunting seems to bring out the inner child and eccentric in all of us. They are not just on the coast but also found more inland, where the coast used to be. With the Wareham and Poole area hosting many stone and clay quarries, fossils can turn up in unexpected places. There is a traditional pub at Worth Matravers, the Square and Compass, which actually hosts its own tiny museum, housing the private collection of finds by the owner’s late father.
Back on the coast, March sees the official opening of a new museum and education centre in Kimmeridge where the lifelong collection of a local expert, Steve Etches, is being made public. It will be a wonderful place for families to visit for years to come and somewhere to go on those rainy days of the holidays, when you hear those inevitable words “I’m bored”.
Marion was born in Somerset near the Dorset border and spent many happy hours exploring Dorset’s beaches in her youth, including fossil hunting in Lyme Regis and excavating the sands in Weymouth. She now lives on a dairy farm in Purbeck.