Lyme does change......slowly!

It may surprise you to learn that it was not until the nineteenth century that us common folk were allowed to own property in the town.  Lyme was divided up into areas of land owned by only a handful of prominent people.

According to the of town map of 1841, some of the larger land-holding names were; Reverand A. Tucker,  S C Culverwell esquire, J F Pinney esquire & others,  James Edwardes snr esquire and H J Henley esquire.  There were many smaller plots of land and buildings that were owned by others.

The names of many of our towns streets. roads and places have changed over the years and some, not for the better!  For instance, take the road from the top of Broad Street up to around the junction of Cobb Road or Pound Street, this was called St. Michaels Street and from around these junctions was called St. Michaels Hill.  We now know them as Pound Street because there was a Pound opposite where the British Telecom Exchange is today.  Whether that was an animal pound or local council pound is unclear at the moment but we are investigating.

Here is a brief list of what the names are now and what they were then but I'll leave it up to you to decide if the change was for the better!

Cobb Road has changed from New Road
The old Police House in Hill Road was called Dark Orchard, which covered the area across to Jordan
Woodmead Road cuts through what was known as Paradise Fields
Guildhall corner to just below St Michaels Church was called Butter Market
Between the Traffic Lights was known as Cock Moil
Bell Cliff was Middle Row and the original Bell Cliff appears to be the short walk down to Marine Parade and the high wall leading up to Middle Row
Victoria Pier was called Crab Head
Jericho seems to cover the area either side of the bottom of Woodmead Road on the opposite side of the river to what it is now
The Bowling Green was behind what used to be the Buena Vista Hotel

Long gone buildings include the beautiful old Summerhill House, a Grade II listed building, which was knocked down in the 1980's to make way for a rather vulgar block of flats.
The Masons Arms, which was located near the current Library
Dunsters Library, which was just above the current Volunteer Inn in Broad Street
The New Inn, which stood next to the current Royal Lion Hotel and can be seen on many old postcards of the main street
The Customs House was housed where Arthur Fordhams Ironmongers and the Public Toilets at the bottom of Broad Street
The Assembly Rooms were situated where the current Car Park is at the bottom of Broad Street, known as Cobb Gate Car Park
The Kings Arms, which stood next to the current Ship Inn in Coombe Street on the opposite side of the lane leading to the Lynch and Town Mills
The Wesleyan Methodist Chapel was at the beginning of Long Entry, right next to the higher traffic lights and pulled down for flats around 1979
White Horse situated next to the town museum
Bank House was a Wine Merchant and appears to be in a building on the seaward side of the current Rock Point Inn
Crown - 18 on the 1841 map
Victoria - 19 on the 1841 map around where Fuego is
The Post Office is where the current Old Lyme Guest House is and the original post box is still in the front wall
The Independent Chapel was converted in the 1980's and is now Dinosaurland
It seems there was also a pub in the ancient Sherborne Lane called the Crown and Anchor, situated on the right hand side around where the hand rail ends

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