Somerset couple looking for new home for huge fossil collection that took 50 years to gather

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A couple say they don't want their huge fossil collection to 'end up in a skip' after they die and have appealed for help to find a new home for it.

Alan and Pauline Brown live in Kilve in Somerset and have spent around half a century collecting fossils from beaches mainly in the county and in Dorset.

The result of their efforts is a collection numbering in the thousands containing everything from ammonites to ancient shark teeth.

They hope that the collection can stay whole and be displayed for people to enjoy. They believe they have one of the largest private collections in the country.

Alan said: "There's a tendency, I think, for people in museums to come and look and sort of cherry pick, and we'd like the collection to remain whole."

Alan said there are many memories attached to each of the fossils, saying: "You can look at these things and you're right back there in the day, the day you found it. You know where you were. You know what the weather was like."

Pauline had been fascinated by fossils since she was a child and had built up a lot of knowledge about them. The couple still have the first fossil they found together whilst on holiday.

She said: "I'm not a sort of person who can just lie on a beach. So the first thing to do is to have a poke about and I think having found one or two, it just took off from there."

The couple say they have always collected fossils where they have been allowed to and have gathered them from loose rocks and stones on beaches.

Alan said the hobby has been a huge part of their lives, saying: "To hold one of these things in your hands, 180 million years old, it does put it in perspective. I think it's a wonderful thing."