RESEARCH TEAM

INTRODUCTION 

​

Lyme became a royal borough in 1284 when Edward I gave it a royal charter(Lyme Regis).John Fowles writes in his ‘A Short History of Lyme Regis’, ..... new royal boroughs were allowed considerable trading privileges, a degree of self-government and their own minor courts. They could also send two members to Parliament –a right Lyme enjoyed (or abused) from 1295 until 1832. In return they had to pay an annual rent and other taxes to the royal exchequer...... Of the 1600 acres of the parish [of Lyme], the royal borough occupied only the 40 acres of the old town. It had no jurisdiction outside.Lyme Regis lost its borough status during the reorganisation of local government in 1974.