As a child in Oxfordshire, Lizzie was always curious and excited about finding things. She learned about fossils from discovering shells and belemnites in the long gravel driveway at her grandparents house.

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On a family camping trip in the 90’s, she was fortunate to travel to Charmouth where at the age of 6 she found her first pyrite ammonites; it very quickly became the only place she wanted to be.

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Charmouth and fossil hunting became a reoccurring destination for summer holidays in the camper van and then eventually progressed to Christmas visits staying in a rental home in Lyme Regis. When she was 8 Lizzie found a large matrix-free section of Ichthyosaur rostrum on Monmouth beach. Her mum, concerned about the incoming tide and adverse weather, told her to leave it – but took her seriously when Lizzie shouted ‘but it has teeth!’ Not knowing what it was at the time, she took it to a fossil shop in Lyme Regis where they identified it and offered to buy it. However the fossil was more important than the money and Lizzie still keeps it in her collection to this day.

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In 2006 Lizzie’s parents purchased a house in Charmouth and, throughout her university years studying art, she would travel from Brighton to Charmouth whenever she had free time to find pyrite ammonites and loose bones. Selling these fossils helped her pay for the fuel, enabling her to come back and find more. On leaving University, she worked as a prop-maker and fine artist in Brighton, eventually getting closer to her love for fossils by securing a contract to make props for the Natural History Museum’s gift shops in London. In 2015 following a change in direction, Lizzie decided to move to Dorset and follow her dream of working with fossils full-time. Her discovery of a fossil shark head on Monmouth beach with head-spines, teeth and skin led to her buying her first fossil preparation tools to prepare it herself as the costs were comparable to having the shark prepared professionally. Over the course of a year she focused purely on collecting and preparation – going beyond looking for just pyrite ammonites and occasional pieces of bone and learning where to find the best rocks. When she was not on the beach she would teach herself preparation. Initially she worked outside in her garden , stopping only when it got too dark to see, or – in Winter – cold enough to make her shiver.

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Gradually, using social media, she began selling her prepared fossils occasionally; after that was successful, she began exhibiting at Fossil shows and started her website, trading as Stonebarrow Fossils from 2017. She now has a large workshop in a village close to Charmouth.

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Initially she focussed on Green ammonite nodules, using new preparation methods. She enjoys finding fossils from beds which had previously been overlooked, or deemed ‘unprepable,’ aiming to prepare them to a high standard. Rarely using a hammer on the beach, she enjoys reading the rocks, looking for the smallest sign of something hiding inside the stone.

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She has found many unusual and rare fossils; her most notable find to date is the Turnersuchus Hingleyae (named after Paul Turner and Lizzie who found it). It is a previously unknown crocodile species and genus. The pair donated this specimen to Lyme Regis museum in 2022. It took them 3 years to find what is displayed today, visiting the same location day after day – often finding nothing for many months.

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Lizzie now predominantly spends her time finding and preparing fossils she has found on the beaches between Monmouth beach, Lyme Regis and Seatown – where her favourite fossils can be found.

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She has taken part in multiple TV pieces focusing on fossils and her preparation work has also featured in many books and magazines.