Charmouth Heritage Coast Centre

Home
United Kingdom
Bridport
Charmouth Heritage Coast Centre

Call Directions Website Contact the organisation

Your first stop to discovering the Jurassic Coast and it's fossils. We are an educational facility, promoting safe and sustainable collecting of local fossils.

www.charmouth.org/chcc/
Get a live view of the beach from our beach cam
https://charmouth.org/chcc/about/beach-cam/ The Charmouth Heritage Coast Centre is situated on the Jurassic Coast, England’s first Natural World Heritage Site. Entry to the centre is free of charge and provides information on fossils the local coastal and marine wildlife. We also offer a wide range of public events throughout the year and an extensive schools programme that brings learning to life in the great outdoors. Being a charitable trust we are largely reliant on support and donations from members and visitors to the centre. We have a range of voluntary opportunities available, if you want to gain experience in this field or if you have any time to give, we would like to hear from you.

09/11/2026

The countdown to Christmas is on and over the next few weeks we will be sharing some fantastic fossily ideas for Christmas gifts from our Centre and online shop, Jurassic Coast pint glasses to ammonite soap stocking fillers!
charmouth.org/chcc/shop/

08/11/2026

This is James (aged 12) and his winning fossil discovery, a fossilised squid ink sac! As one of our six Children’s Fossil Competition winners, James has something a little different to share with you all!

James found his fossil at the water’s edge on Charmouth beach. When he researched it, he discovered that fossil ink can sometimes, with the right techniques, be used to draw, millions of years after it was last a liquid!

His research introduced him to Elizabeth Philpot, a fossil collector and friend of Mary Anning. Elizabeth used fossil ink to draw an ichthyosaur skull in the 1830s. Imagine drawing a prehistoric animal using ink preserved from another!

We’ve even made ink from fossil ink sacs ourselves here at The Etches Collection! If you want to learn more about how fossil ink can be made into real ink, click here:
https://youtu.be/YojuJu_46b8?si=a2zbYidflYLPDybv

Congratulations, James. We can’t wait to share your discovery with our visitors!

06/11/2026

We had to shift some fossils around for November's huge fossil of the month! This huge ammonite, discovered and prepared by Chris and Alex Moore, was found just a few weeks ago on Monmouth Beach.

It's taken over 30 hours of painstaking work to reveal all of the beautiful suture marks running over the whorls of this ammonite. They even discovered some encrusting oysters fossilised along with the ammonite they'd grown on 200 million years ago.

This huge ammonite has been identified as a rare species, Schlothemia depressa. This particular type of ammonite is thought to be a macroconch, or female, typically much larger than the male ammonites known as microconchs, just like modern molluscs.

05/11/2026

The winners of our Children’s Fossil Competition have been chosen! We’ll be introducing our six winners and their fantastic fossil discoveries soon, so keep an eye out.

Over 2027 their fossils will be heading across Dorset's Jurassic Coast, giving you the chance to see these discoveries for yourselves. The winners’ exhibition will be on display at:

The Etches Collection from 1st January
Charmouth Heritage Coast Centre from 1st May
Lyme Regis Museum from 1st September

Thank you to everyone who entered and shared their discoveries with us. We’ve loved hearing your stories and seeing your enthusiasm for fossils! Make sure you come by in the new year and see the amazing winning discoveries!

04/11/2026

If you're coming down this November for some fossil hunting, or just to visit the beach, then please note the steps to access West Beach are undergoing some maintenance by the council. You can still access the beach by the walkway over the rocks.

04/11/2026

Unfortunately the Centre will be closed for tomorrow as we'll be out of office delivering some of our Jurassic Labs outreach sessions to the Year 3s of Portland's St. George's School! It's the first one of the season and we're looking forward to it!

03/11/2026

It's the first day of our Winter working party joining us in the Centre for some post-season maintenance! Sadly that does mean we've said goodbye to this year's catch-and-release tank inhabitants as we release them to the wild.

02/11/2026

From today we have started our winter opening hours!

We are open Thursday, Fridays, Saturdays and Sundays 10.30am-4pm! We are closed Monday-Wednesdays to carry out maintenance and build new displays! https://charmouth.org/chcc/opening-times/

01/11/2026

A big congratulations to Lana and Rufus from Worcester on their winning pumpkin entries in yesterday's competition! Some brilliant entries with some Jurassic Coast pumpkins!

31/10/2026

We are proud to announce Charmouth's first ever heated dinosaur race after an impromptu challenge between our competitors Bob and Zip. We wouldn't exactly describe it as a clean or sporting run...

Address

Charmouth Heritage Coast Centre
Bridport
DT66LR

Telephone

+441297560772

Website

http://www.charmouth.org/chcc/

Alerts

Be the first to know and let us send you an email when Charmouth Heritage Coast Centre posts news and promotions. Your email address will not be used for any other purpose, and you can unsubscribe at any time.