The harbour wall, known as The Cobb, appears in Jane Austen's novel Persuasion, the John Fowles novel The French Lieutenant's Woman and the 1981 film of that name, partly shot in the town.

John Leland visited in the 16th century and described Lyme as "a praty market town set in the rootes of an high rokky hille down to the hard shore.

"[6] In 1644, during the English Civil War, Parliamentarians withstood an eight-week siege of the town by Royalist forces under Prince Maurice.

Lyme grew in size as a result of seaside tourism in the 18th century bought about by new purported health benefits of the sea air/taking the waters,[7] and the establishment of the turnpike road system.

The town then benefited at the expense of continental destinations during the Napoleonic wars when wealthy tourists were unable to travel abroad.

This led notable people including Jane Austen to visit,[8] who set part of her final novel Persuasion in the town.

[9] Between 1811 and her death in 1847 Mary Anning, a geological pioneer, found and identified Jurassic marine reptile fossils in cliffs to the east of Lyme Regis.

Lassie, the owner's dog, licked the face of Seaman Cowan, who was believed dead, and seemingly brought him back to life.

In 2005, one event to mark the bicentenary of Admiral Nelson's victory at the Battle of Trafalgar was a re-enactment of the arrival of the news aboard the Bermuda sloop HMS Pickle.

The actor playing the part of Lieutenant John Richards Lapenotière, the Trafalgar messenger, was welcomed at Lyme Regis.

The town has grown around the mouth of the River Lim (or Lym) which drops from a plateau at an altitude of about 200 m (660 ft) before flowing around 5–6 km (3–4 mi) south and south-east to the sea.

[14] The coastal exposures provide a continuous sequence of Triassic, Jurassic and Cretaceous rock formations spanning some 185 million years of the Earth's history.

The Blue Lias and Charmouth Mudstone geological formations host a multitude of remains from the Early Jurassic, from which epoch good fossil records are rare.

Many of the earliest discoveries of dinosaur and other prehistoric reptile remains were made in the area around Lyme Regis, notably those discovered by Mary Anning (1799–1847).

"The Dowlands Landslip" occurred on 24 December 1839, 3 miles (4.8 km) west along the coast in Devon, in an area belonging to Bindon Manor.

[26] The Boat Building Academy, a registered charity[27] runs courses in traditional boatbuilding and furniture making from its site at Monmouth Beach.

From 1295 to 1868 it was covered by the Lyme Regis constituency The first record of the Cobb, the town's harbour wall, is in a 1328 document[33] describing it as having been damaged by storms.

After the Great Storm of 1824, Captain Sir Richard Spencer RN carried out pioneering lifeboat design work in Cobb harbour.

[38] Open since the late 1950s, Lyme Regis Marine Aquarium occupies an early 18th-century stone building on the Cobb harbour wall.

The aquarium showcases some of the abundant local sea life and offers insight into Lyme's rich maritime history.

Visitors have opportunities to hand-feed a shoal of tame Thicklip grey mullet, stroke a lobster, and hold a starfish.

[43] Since then the hotel has accommodated Alfred Lord Tennyson, Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, Hilaire Belloc, G. K. Chesterton and J. R. R. Tolkien, who spent several holidays there.

In 1944 General Eisenhower delivered an important briefing before D-Day to senior Allied officers in its first-floor lounge.

The owners, Palmers Brewery of Bridport, closed the hotel in May 1990 and put forward plans to demolish the significantly historic rear of the building and replace it with retail units, a restaurant, and visitor and private accommodation.

[45] On 22 May 2022 a new Statue of Mary Anning was unveiled by Alice Roberts at the junction of Long Entry and Gun Cliff Walk.

[47] Set into the pavement outside the museum is an example of Coade stone work, in the form of ammonites, reflecting the palaeontology for which the town is famous.

It commemorates Eleanor Coade, who had an 18th-century artificial stone factory in London and a seaside home, Belmont House, in the town.

[49] In 2012 graffiti artist Banksy stenciled an origami crane on a wall adjacent to the River Lym at the intersection of Mill and Coombe Streets.

Lyme Regis is the setting for much of the historical novel Remarkable Creatures by Tracy Chevalier, of which fossil hunter Mary Anning is a protagonist.

In its 125th anniversary year, 2010, Tony Cottee (a former West Ham, Everton and England striker) was made club patron.