Chideock WI November 2026
This month Alison Ferris of Charmouth Heritage Centre spoke with us about the history of the centre, a truly historic site here in our midst. The centre runs as a charitable trust with no funding from central government. It was officially opened by John Fowles in 1986 and welcomed 28 thousand visitors in that year alone. Now over 150 thousand people visit the centre every year. Built on a disused cement factory the centre and staff act as a fantastic resource for education, national museums, universities, citizen science projects and much more. Their intention is to encourage safe and sustainable collection of Jurassic fossils. Alison quoted Sir David Attenborough: ‘ It was here that fossil collecting turned into Palaeontology’. Since 1858 there have been discoveries in Charmouth, of a number of fossils, several of them rare or the only known or complete fossils of a particular species in the world. These discoveries have fuelled world wide knowledge of the evolution of certain species, the ‘Charmouth Crocodile’ being one example or perhaps you have heard of Attenborough’s Sea Dragon.
Want to know more? The centre is open from Thursdays to Sundays inclusive during the winter months and has a number of publications available in its Gift Shop. An unusual and stimulating Christmas Gift perhaps.
Alongside our November meeting several WI members enjoyed a lino cutting workshop, seen above. In lieu of our December meeting we will be going out to lunch, while our groups will still meet as usual. We were delighted to welcome new members this month and give celebratory flowers to our members with November birthdays….it seems that, over the years, Valentine’s Day has been well celebrated!
JDS