There’s a most interesting story behind it.

In 1978 the artist Laurence Whistler gave this bound manuscript of a poem, some 80 pages long, to the Lyme Regis Philpot Museum, where it is on display. The author John Fowles had at this point just started his ten-year stewardship at the Philpot  as Honorary Curator. From the outset he regarded The Lymiad as one of the museum’s most precious possessions – for its verve, wit, and satirical humour; its vivid evocation of the manners and pastimes of a small Regency resort; and above all for its acute observations of the town, its people, and their preoccupations.

 Sadly, John Fowles died in 2005, so he never saw his dream of The Lymiad’s publication brought to fruition. Now the Museum’s Trustees have re-visited the project, in consultation with Mrs Sarah Fowles, his widow, and plan to launch a new edition of the manuscript; not a facsimile of the original, but designed as it might have appeared had it been published in 1819 – some 200 pages, soft-back, but with stitched pages and card covers marbled in the Regency manner.

The Lymiad will come out looking finer than this. At least, it'd better do!

 The edition will contain:

• An essay by John Fowles on “Lyme in the early 1800s’, published in 2003 from his original introduction
• A general introduction and textual note by John Constable
• A transcription of the text
• Editorial notes by John Fowles, John Constable and Jo Draper, the former curatorial consultant at the Museum.
• Illustrations from the Museum’s rich collection

The cost of the entire project is estimated at £4000. Some funds have already been raised, and it is hoped to raise the balance by 100 individual subscriptions of £20, the names of all those subscribing to be recorded in the publication.

For further information on this fascinating project contact Mary Godwin, the Museum’s Curator, on 01297-443370, or e-mail curator@lymeregismuseum.co.uk

*In 1997 the manuscript caught the attention of Dr John Constable, then Professor of English Literature at Kyoto University. Over the next few years he checked and studied the transcript and wrote the introduction.

In his words:  “The Lymiad emerges as a highly political and a thoroughly Whig poem, with some leanings towards the left of that party though stopping short of Radicalism itself.”

In view of Lyme’s political history, some may be surprised that “it stopped short of Radicalism itself”!

The move is announced on the papers’ website but not (that I can see) in the papers themselves.

The shift means the two Newsquest publications will come out on the same morning as the free newspapers View From Bridport, View From Beaminster and View From Lyme Regis.

“The Bridport News and Lyme Regis News moving to Wednesday is purely for operational reasons relating to available press slots,” says Toby Granville, editor of the Dorset Echo, who also oversees the two weeklies.

View From editor Philip Evans comments (via Twitter): “@RealWestDorset By moving to a Wednesday publishing date they lose their only exclusive news day to the View. Great decision – for the View!”

Analysis

Myself, I think there are three things worth remarking on.

One: when the News did first move from Friday to Thursday that was done to compete more directly with View From titles and the Western Gazette (which comes out on Thursdays). Yet I know people who still dislike that shift intensely and refuse, as a matter of principle, to buy the News on a Thursday, because they believe it should still come out on a Friday. That’s a powerful testament to the strength of the connection that the News had with people, and to the force of habit. It’s Friday: it’s Bridport / Lyme Regis News day. Friday was a crucial part of the papers’ brand identity. Changing to a Thursday affected that, but perhaps moving to a Wednesday will not, particularly, because the first move was the one that showed the brand could be tampered with. Like ITV’s News at Ten; there are people who have never seen that in quite the same way since ITV began moving it around…

Another comment via Twitter: “oninbridders @RealWestDorset Bridport News belongs to Friday, a nice way to end the week, sort it out @Dorsetecho. Though at this rate it will loop back”

Two: it will interesting to see what effect it has, three editions of the View From and two editions of the News coming out on the same day, midweek. All sorts of permutations are possible. Good for the View because people might choose to pick up a free paper rather than pay for one that is now covering exactly the same last week? Good for the News because it’s got more pages at the moment than it’s had for years and people might think that a paid-for publication is always going to be superior to a free? Or good for them both because, if you’re in the shop, why not get them both? Neither is going to want to have exactly the same content as the other so they should (in theory) both get better and more various.

Three: and what of the 60p Western Gazette, which fewer people in West Dorset seem to care about these days, despite the best efforts of its local reporter Danielle Hoffman? (It was noticeable, for example, that she turned up for the recent South West Quadrant appeal hearing whereas no one from the News was seen – a situation that people commented upon.) Alas for the Western Gazette, it won’t have much of an “exclusive news day” to itself on Wednesdays because the deadline for its West Dorset edition is late on Tuesday. Oh well.

Postscript

View From Publications are now planning something for Fridays called the View Online Dorset Weekender – “a brand new weekly paper you’ll only be able to read online!”

One of his many achievements is the Practical Insight series of books, written for teachers and parents wishing to entertain and educate their children as they explore our beautiful West Country. First up was a book on fossil hunting on the Jurassic Coast, a local best seller which is also sold at the Natural History Museum in London. “Written in a clear and informative style,” said The Marshwood Vale magazine, “it begins with an explanation of just why there are so many fossils in the area, and an overview of Jurassic sea life. It is filled with clear diagrams and drawings,  and makes even the most complicated geology accessible.”

All the books incorporate a minimum of 40 original line drawings by the author, whose artwork has been seen at The Royal Academy Summer Exhibition, The Royal Society of Painter Etchers and Engravers, and The Centre Nationale in Paris.

At the March 4 talk, which starts at 7.30pm, there will also be an exhibition of some of the items he has unearthed in The Undercliff, including this exquisite Victorian penny found in prime condition.

Admission is £2 for members, £3 for non-members, and further information can be obtained from Margaret Rose on 01297-445503.

Margaret Rose is Chairman of The Friends of Lyme Regis Museum

A long time supporter of the Museum, and at one time co-curator with her friend, the author John Fowles, Ann Jellicoe trained as an actor at the Central School of Speech and Drama. She was a central figure at London’s Royal Court Theatre in the sixties, taking the theatrical world by storm with The Knack: it subsequently played, and still plays, all round the world, and was made into an award-winning film which won the Palme d’Or at Cannes.

She will also talk of her work in developing Community Plays: a new form which aims to involve as many people from the whole community as possible, working together in setting up and acting a very large caste play about their own town. Many Lyme residents will remember her very first Community Play The Reckoning in 1978. Written and directed by Ann Jellicoe, it told the story of the part played by the town in the Monmouth Rebellion. Its huge success led her to set up the Colway Theatre Trust with its subsequent development of Community Plays throughout the West Country and beyond. In 1984 came the second Lyme play, The Western Women, about the remarkable role played by women in the Siege of Lyme. For this work she was awarded the OBE.

Ever the innovator, she gave a one-woman dramatised reading of The Western Women at the Marine Theatre two years ago. Of this performance, given when she was 80 years old, the Town Mill’s journal said: “This was genius…such an evening is very rare and we were privileged to be part of it.”

Ann Jellicoe has been at the cutting edge of theatre in this country for the past 50 years.   She has a fascinating tale to tell, and guests will have a unique opportunity to question her on all aspects of her work: writing, acting, directing, or creating theatre of the people, for the people, by the people.

Reservations, £25 per person, must be pre-booked by lst February at the latest so that catering arrangements can be finalised.

For further information please contact me, Margaret Rose on 01297-445503.

Margaret Rose is Chairman of The Friends of Lyme Regis Museum

Editor’s Note: I find myself in something of a quandary over this story, because my wife’s firm Watershed PR is working with Palmers Brewery on The Three Cups. Anything I write about The Three Cups is therefore likely to be viewed as compromised in some way. I have thought a lot about this and decided – in this instance – to do three things – 1) report factual snippets from a presentation to journalists, for the purpose of breaking news (as earlier on Twitter), 2) reproduce word for word the text of Palmers’ press release, so that you can judge it for yourselves, and if you so wish, use it to assess what other journalists write, and 3) show some photographs of the inside of The Three Cups. I am obviously aware that the objectivity of photographs can be disputed, but not many pictures of the inside of The Three Cups can be seen online, and I think it is worth providing a dozen or so more.

AN independent consultants’ report into the viability of re-converting The Three Cups Hotel in Lyme Regis into a hotel has found that the costs of re-conversion are so large that the scheme is uneconomic. Palmers Brewery, which owns The Three Cups, will now consult widely with the local community to find a way forward for the site.

The report by TRI Hospitality Consulting examined two possible re-conversion plans: Option A was for a hotel within the existing building with 13 bedrooms, restaurant, bar and meeting room. Option B was a more ambitious scheme to preserve the historic front section of the building while demolishing and rebuilding the rear to include 20 bedrooms, restaurant, bar and meeting room.

The report concluded that the income likely to be generated from Scheme A would allow a maximum of £830,000 to be spent on the reconversion. Option A was estimated to cost £3m leaving a huge shortfall. The figures for Scheme B were similarly uneconomic.

Nigel Jones of Chesterton Humberts, property agents for Palmers, said: ‘Sadly the affordability gap is so huge that there is absolutely no hope of anyone realistically ever being able to afford to reconvert the building into a hotel. The gap is so large that even if it were somehow possible to halve the costs, re-conversion would still be economically unviable.

‘The re-conversion costs are so high not because the building has been unused but because it needs complete re-configuration to meet modern standards and customer requirements. Radical changes would be needed to room layout and facilities; it is not a case of simple refurbishment. The fact it has stood empty for 20 years has not contributed significantly to these costs.

‘We commissioned this report with an open mind because we wanted to find out what the options were. Now we have it, everyone needs to look forward. We are therefore going to consult with the community with the aim of finding proposals for the site that are both appropriate and economically viable.’

Key facts from report

Building occupies a premium site

Tourist season in Lyme Regis has steep peaks and deep troughs, with too much demand in summer and too little in winter, restricting income potential for hotels

Costs are huge: scheme A (reconvert with 13 bedrooms): £3m. Scheme B (some demolition and new build) with 20 bedrooms: just over £4m.

Shortfall on scheme A of nearly £2.5m

Shortfall on scheme B of £2.6 to £3m

TRI Hospitality Consulting

Independent consultants based in London with wide experience of hotel and hospitality industry. Clients include the largest hospitality and financial organisations in the UK. Also has significant experience in the South West.

Produces the largest full Profit & Loss database of full-service hotels across the UK and Europe.

More than 2,000 hotels (300,000+ bedrooms) supply performance data in absolute confidence.

Runs annual UK budget hotel survey, monthly full-service UK and Europe surveys and quarterly confidence monitor.

TRI’s instructions from JC & RH Palmer Ltd

“…you wish to achieve a development which is appropriate for the town and the site and you require an independent assessment of the market and financial viability of the restoration of the Three Cups for hotel use.”

Other consultants involved in project

Davis Langdon, Chartered Quantity Surveyors, Southampton office; Archial Architects Ltd, Bournemouth

What I can’t work out, from looking at the wall,  is where this mock sign is supposed to be. It looks tantalisingly like West Bay, but could it be Lyme Regis? A strange question, I know, but I am genuinely curious…

Shephard was born in Lyme in 1892, the son of a photographer. He kept a wartime diary in which he recorded his interest in food – “We made a grand stew in a washing bucket” - and, more seriously, his experience of being gassed - “Men were caught by fumes and in dreadful agony.” Shephard did not make it through to the end of the war. He is buried on the Somme, where, writes Holmes, “I go to see him as often as I can.”

Holmes’ tribute in the paper’s “My hero” section can be read by clicking on this link. It’s highly recommended.

WEST BEXINGTON: Latest in the controversy over large chalet built by millionaire businessman just behind Chesil Beach. Now he’s told to remove sun deck. Read more: Daily Telegraph.

LYME REGIS: West Dorset District Council to update protestors about Three Cups Hotel. Read more: Midweek Herald. 

CHICKERELL: Hay from MoD’s Tidmoor ranges used to reseed Teddy Bear Woods in Weymouth, after fires. Read more: Dorset County Council.

BRIDPORT: Petrolhead James Cross reaches Hot Laps final at Silverstone. Read more: Times.

SOME QUESTIONS for you to ponder as you savour a pint. All prompted by the entry for The Volunteer Inn in Lyme Regis in the 2010 Good Beer Guide, published by CAMRA.

Is it true to say, as the guide does, that The Volunteer is “renowned for freshly cooked meals including fish”? (I’d say, yes, it could be).

Is it true “No food is served on Monday”? (Yes)

Would you expect it to be true that CAMRA members visit the pubs they write about at least once a year? (Yes, I’d expect that)

Can we square my responses so far – and yours – with the fact that The Volunteer hasn’t been serving any food for about a year, maybe longer?

All I’ve had in there is crisps, nuts and Mini-Cheddars. Do you think they’ve been hiding “freshly cooked meals” from me?

Never mind, it’s supposed to be a good beer guide, and the beer there is great. It’s a rare trip to Lyme when it’s not worth “looking in” there.

The picture below shows an advert for The Volunteer from a guide to Lyme Regis published in the early 1900’s. It looks like it definitely served freshly cooked meals then!