My Story

The jurassic coast has been a source of excitement and intrigue to me since a young age. I first visited the area in 2008 at the age of 7, and was instantly hooked with the idea of finding something so ancient and beautiful, that had never been seen or held by another person before. Living so far away in the North West of England, and being unable to convince the DVLA to give me a driving test at this age, combined with not having the foresight to invest in Apple in 1980 to afford a private chaffer, meant I could rarely visit; normally just once a year for a few days around my birthday. On these trips I’d come away with the usual pyrite ammonites, belemnites and crinoid stars, which I’d find from sifting through the beach shingle with a miniature plastic hammer. I was surprisingly successful doing this, and was extremely excited when I found my first ichthyosaur vertebrae, which took quite a few visits to find. On one of these trips I got super lucky, and found a bone from a scelidosaur, a dinosaur unique to Charmouth and extremely rare. Needless to say, I was very happy to find that! For a few years in high school I lost touch with fossil collecting, largely due to the many miles that separated me from the coast but the increasing pressure of academy football and high school meant I didn't visit for a few years. However, in 2017 I rediscovered my passion for fossil collecting when a high school friend and I visited the area specifically to search for fossils on a camping trip. It took us 12 hours via different buses to get to Lyme Regis but it was all worth it and ultimately reignited my passion for it all. After this I visited the area more frequently, and in 2021 I decided to pursue a degree in geology at the University of Southampton, which allowed me to further my interest in the subject, but also put me much closer to the Jurassic Coast. During my time in Southampton I visited the area as frequently as I could, sometimes going down for the day, taking multiple trains and buses there and back, just to get a few hours on the beach. Over the next 3 years, and through much trial and error, I taught myself what to look for, studied scientific papers and learnt as much as possible about the various layers and rock types which contain the best fossils. Since 2021, I have been fortunate enough to not only spend so much time on such a beautiful stretch of ever-changing coastline, but also to find some really special fossils, some extremely beautiful and unique and others scientifically important, including marine reptiles, fish and insects.

I have started this venture and website so that I can continue to pursue this interest in which I am highly passionate about, but I also hope it acts as an educational resource in part, that enables others to learn more about the subject, and perhaps take a step into the world of fossil collecting, which can be quite difficult to understand and daunting at times. If you have any inquiries or fossil related questions, send me an email or message me on Instagram.

Josh :)