Lyme Regis is a town in West Dorset, England, 25 miles (40 km) west of Dorchester and also 25 miles (40 kilometres) east of Exeter. Styled "The Pearl of Dorset", it lies at Lyme Bay on the English Channel coast at the Dorset-- Devon border. It is noted for fossils located in high cliffs and also beaches on the Heritage Coast or Jurassic Coast, a World Heritage Site. The harbour wall-- known as "The Cobb"-- appears in Jane Austen's novel Persuasion, the John Fowles novel The French Lieutenant's Woman, as well as the 1981 movie of that name, which was partially shot in the town. A previous mayor and also MP was Admiral Sir George Somers, who started the English colonial settlement of Somers Isles, currently Bermuda, where Lyme Regis is twinned with St George's. In July 2015, Lyme Regis likewise joined Jamestown, Virginia, in a Historical Atlantic Triangle with St George's. The 2011 Census gave the church as well as electoral ward a population of 3,671.