For those of you who like to have a face to relate to, this is me, Fred, with my wife Jaki

I began collecting the fossils of the London clay in 1995 and have now given up actively collecting. Together with myself, Tony Mitchel, David and Martin Rayner we are the co-authors of "London clay fossils of the Isle of Sheppey"punblished as our Millenium project in 2000 and London Clay Fossils of Kent & Essex published in 2009. My part in this production, apart from supplying a few fossils for the book, was the imaging of most of the specimens and preparing them for publication. The only images that we were not responsible forin the 2000 book were the sharks teeth, for which I owe a great debt of thanks to Jim Craig, who supplied us with all of his excellent teeth images subsequent images in the 2009 book of the shark teeth in colour were Taken for the most part by David and Martin Rayner. The main write up and ID. guide was compiled by Tony, David and Martin. Martin and Tony spent many hours consulting experts as to which were the most important features of the specimens so that identification could be made as certain as possible. Between the four of us we were able to supply most of the specimens as our joint collections are quite extensive, but by no means did they represent an inclusive fauna. Luckily friends came to our aid and supplied the specimens that we needed to complete the book.

The "Sheppey Fossil Study Group" was set up in 1995. The founder members wereJim Craig and myself. As we both lived on the Island it seemed to be a good idea at the time. We used the group logo when exhibiting or representing Sheppey fossils at Road Shows. The image below was taken by the press at the Fossil roadshow at Dover Museum. The guy on the right is Mark Frost, assistant curator at the museum. I'm in the middle (before I had my hair cut) and Ron Stilwell of the Monkton field study centre is to the left. The fourth person represented left his head on the foreshore for me to find. He is probably between 3 & 8 Hundred years old and had already begun to fossilise in the silts of Sheppey. The Sheppey Fossil Study Group no longer exists with the sad loss of Jim Craig in 2001
 
Every year my friends and I have taken part in various museum roadshows where we advertise the Palaeo hobby trying to encourage young people. In Britain amateur and professional palaeontologists co-operate to further the study of past environments and the flora and fauna that inhabited them.
From left to right, Ron Stilwell, Myself, and Mark Frost and friend at the 1999 fossil roadshow, Dover Museum, showing a small display of Sheppey fossils.