Glimpses inside Lyme homes in the 1880s

Once again, Sun Insurance documents, this time from October 1880 to June 1895, offer intriguing insights into the lives of some of those living in Lyme at the time. As well as giving the name and occupation, these records give the address and list those contents which are to be insured. There appear to be a surprising number of spinsters, and an even more surprising number of owners of "mathematical and philosophical instruments and apparatus." Apparently "philosophical" covered what would now be called "scientific", a term which was only just coming into use at the time. The whole term covered a very wide range of items, from clocks, watches, spectacles and thermometers through magic lanterns, barometers and basic telescopes to very complicated research instruments.

Some events as reported in 1857 are still very familiar today.

They may have been written 166 years ago but some of the news items relating to Lyme Regis extracted here from the Pulmans Weekly News of 1857 could have been written about events today: examples include the results of the summer Horticultural show and reports on the Annual Regatta and the boats wrecked in the harbour by an October gale. Other items are more of their time - for example, a house-to-house collection in aid of the "suffering English" only 5 months after the beginning of the Indian Mutiny, which shows the news spread at a surprising rate; and some are just bizarre, such as the report of a trout being caught in "the little stream opposite Mill Green. There were 5 mice in its stomach".

A curious source of information.........

.....but a very useful one. This file from the Records of the Sun Fire Office lists the people and buildings insured in Lyme Regis for 1788-93 . So not only can you see who owned/lived in certain streets at the time, but the occupations listed give a clear picture of life in the town at the time. Very much more self sufficient than now, the town had a plethora of brewers and wine merchants, a couple of bakers, grocers, a fisherman and many more supplying essential goods. Most interestingly, there is a glimpse of Lyme's long-gone connection with the wool trade with John Peckett a "woolstapler" (ie a dealer in wool) of Horse Street (today's Coombe Street), and possibly with Valentine Clark, narrow cloth maker, of Church Street.