Jurassic Coast Trust Roaring Along in the “Wild West”

The Jurassic Coast Trust recently made two show-stealing appearances in the Jurassic Coast’s western end, powered by our brilliant local Ambassadors.

Devon County Show

First up was Devon County Show, where we were kindly hosted by Devon County Council in the #WeAreDevon marquee across the show’s three days. Strategically positioned within dashing distance of the delicious produce from Harvest Workers Co-op, we spoke to Jurassic Coast fans aged 5 to 85 across the show’s three days, wowing them with our display of locally sourced fossils. We were represented by our Ambassador Chris Woodward and Programme Manager Guy Kerr on the show’s opening day, managing to entertain a couple of school groups as well as snap a selfie with a very convincing Johnny Depp lookalike!

On Friday, Chris returned, accompanied by another intrepid Exmouth Ambassador, Anthony Cline. On the show’s final day, a couple of our newly recruited Ambassadors – Sheena Paterson from Exmouth and Jenny Moon from Lympstone – kept the punters entertained, with Jenny speaking to visitors about the fossils they could find in their gravel driveways at home. Whichever way you look, geology turns up surprising results!

The County Show was also a brilliant opportunity to catch up with some of our Business Partners, including Clinton Devon Estates, Purbeck Ice Cream and holidaycottages.co.uk

 

Exmouth Festival

Following success at the County Show, we turned our attention to Exmouth Festival, where we teamed up with Jenny and Gayle from the Exmouth Town Team to assist in the relaunch of the Exmouth Dinosaur Trail. Our local Ambassadors were accompanied by a roaring, stomping T. Rex that was almost too convincing!

Our JCT gazebo was packed to the rafters with dinosaur displays courtesy of our Ambassador Chris, who gladly spoke to all and sundry about the incredible fossil heritage of our coastline, and how it links in to the ever-evolving global palaeontology story.

This part of the Jurassic Coast, the “Wild West”, (don’t those red rocks remind you of a John Wayne gun-slinging Western?) is crucial to the World Heritage Site’s story. It contains the Site’s oldest section of rocks and its starting point (or ending point, depending on your point of view) at Orcombe Point. Being able to engage with audiences in Exmouth and the greater Devon region is absolutely critical for ensuring more people know about our globally outstanding coastline, and feel included in its protection.