Somers Day Parade

Lyme Regis celebrates its historic friendship with twin town St George's, Bermuda. Twinners from St George's travel to Lyme Regis for the parade, which starts at the top of Langmoor Gardens and makes its way through the gardens, stopping at the Sir George Somers statue for speeches. It then makes its way along the seafront, ending at the Cobb for a short ceremony. The parade commemorates Admiral Sir George Somers, a former Mayor of Lyme Regis and MP, who founded the islands of Bermuda in the name of King James VI in 1609, after being shipwrecked en route to help the beleaguered settlers of new English colony, Jamestown, in Virginia. The first parade in honour of Sir George was held in Lyme in 1980, and Lyme Regis and St George’s were officially twinned in 1996.