Our foray into the past this week takes us to Lyme Regis.

This collection of pictures shows the resort's beautiful old buildings, its people and, as a coastal town, its exposure to the elements.

This can be seen in a 1926 image of Marine Parade in which the promenade has been destroyed by a ferocious sea.

Coastal Lyme in a more altogether state is shown in the picture of The Cobb, dating back to 1940.

Particularly charming is a lovely old picture of a thriving Smithy in Lyme.

Going back to 1904, we can see the walking funeral of John Groves, landlord of the Red Lion, Lyme Regis, heading down Broad Street towards the church.

Walking funerals came to an end in Lyme Regis when its vicar announced his intention of only conducting funerals where the mourners travelled by carriage, rather than on foot - what he described as a 'proper' carriage funeral.

This information and picture comes from Dorset, the Twentieth Century in Photographs by David Burnett, 1999.

Finally we have an old picture of Coram Court in Lyme, which was a 1930s holiday centre.

It became the Holiday Fellowship and offered reasonably priced holidays with a lot of walking and many social events.

A surviving programme for the Holiday Fellowship in the 1938 season gives the programme for the week and includes a six to 11-mile walk every day except the rest day, which was to be spent 'quietly at the guest house or exploring the neighbourhood'.

In 2001 John Fowles, author of The French Lieutenant's Woman, launched an unsuccessful national campaign to prevent 16 houses being built on the former Coram Court hotel site, warning that it would destroy the historic town's unique skyline and turn it into 'Surrey by the Sea'.

Thanks to Lyme Regis Museum for sharing this photo with us.