FOSSIL fanatics and fencing fans in West Dorset are celebrating after the latest round of Lottery payouts.

Lyme Regis Development Trust has received a £10,000 Awards for All grant towards staging its £60,000 fossil festival next spring.

Former Commonwealth Gold medal foil fencing champion Shirley Parker gets just over £3,000 to help her set up a new club in Bridport to train future stars.

Lyme’s award has come as a major boost to the development trust after it was forced to cancel this year’s natural science festival because of lack of funding.

Next year’s festival, the fourth event of its kind, will be held from May 21 to 24, and will explore 200 million years of the earth’s history.

It is part of a long-term bid to secure the Jurassic Coast Study Centre in Lyme Regis.

Development trust manager Marcus Dixon said: “The Jurassic Coast is England’s only completely natural World Heritage Site.

“Its 95 miles contain countless pieces of geological history sitting side by side.

“Lyme Regis is seen by many as the birthplace of the earth sciences, thanks mainly to local scientist Mary Anning, who began studying fossils in the 19th century and became known throughout Europe. We’d like Lyme Regis to get that same international recognition now.

“Evolution Rocks! is the first step in that process.

“It will be a fun, interactive festival with opportunities to step back in history and meet the dinosaurs and figures like Anning, but also a chance to see what evolution holds in the future through the latest advancements in natural science.

“It will be an exciting, contemporary festival held across Lyme Regis and Charmouth and we invite everyone to come down and enjoy themselves.”

Meanwhile a grant of £3,144 will enable plans for a West Dorset Foil Fencing Club to go ahead early in the New Year.

Burton Bradstock resident Shirley Parker, who won Gold and Silver at the Empire Commonwealth Games in the 1960s, is behind the venture.

She said she was delighted with the lottery award, which would enable them to buy the safety equipment required to launch the new group.