Devon may have its Jurassic Coast but Kent boasts one of the best beaches in the UK for unearthing treasures from 65 million years ago.

Since mum-of-five Emma Tullett lost her home in a recent cliff fall the coast of Sheppey has been in the news – but its what lies beneath that has been exciting fossil hunters for centuries.

The cliffs, which are steadily eroding into the sea, contain the secrets of what life was like in Britain between 65 and 23 million years ago and attract fossil-hunters from all over the world.

Dinosaurs had disappeared but this area of England was basking in subtropical temperatures. It could have been a swamp, rain forest or shallow sea with average daily temperatures hitting 25C - similar to the climate of Spain today.

There were palms growing on the land and turtles swimming in the sea. This was also the era when whales and sharks were taking over the oceans.

One of the most common finds among the shingle on the beaches between Eastchurch and Warden are tiny sharks' teeth.

Fossilised trees, leaves and Nipa fruits (like mangroves) can easily be found, along with prehistoric crabs, nautilus shells, snake skeletons and occasionally bird skulls.

Retired teacher Fred Clouter from Sheerness discovered a four-metre (12-ft) long fossilised tree trunk at Warden Point in 2018. He said: "It has been washed out of the foreshore clay next to one of the old Second World War concrete bunkers.”

The Island has been famous for its London Clay fossils for more than 300 years. Unlike many sites, its fossils are easily found scattered among fragments of iron pyrite on the beach or in loose cement stone nodules on the foreshore.

Collectors can be segregated into two groups.

Those seeking small invertebrates, sharks' teeth, molluscs and seeds work high up the beach, usually lying on their sides or kneeling.

Cement stones with crab, lobster or large vertebrate remains are found lower down the beach and often involve plenty of wading through the mud.

Collecting cement stones, to burn to produce Roman or Parker's cement, started in the early nineteenth century. But by the 1830s nearly all of the stones had been removed from Sheppey's north coast which led to increased erosion.

The only tools required to find fossils on the Island are Wellies and a stout bag. Some pack a magnifying glass to study smaller finds and others take a trowel to ease objects out of the mud at low tide.

As the area is a Site of Scientific Interest no digging is allowed on the cliffs.

Some finds are on show at Minster Abbey’s Gatehouse Museum and London’s Natural History Museum.

Generations of Islanders have grown up with the joys of hunting for fossils.

Among them is TV presenter Steve Brown who featured Sheppey and its fossils on the BBC's Blue Planet UK show in March last year.

Steve, 37, who lives in Sittingbourne but grew up on the Island, recalled: “My dad would take us all to the beach to learn about rock pools and search for sharks’ teeth. We would have competitions to see who could find the most. The fossils are there to find. It just takes patience.

"The beach was my back garden, my playground. It was great to come back to share my memories with my nephews. It was a pleasure to see them learning all about the world on their doorsteps. And it’s all free. Exploring a beach doesn’t cost anything.”

But the cliffs can also be a dangerous place.

Many have had to be plucked to safety by helicopter, Coastguards and RNLI crews after becoming trapped in the innocent-looking liquid 'sinking mud'.

Nearly all Islanders who have ventured on them have lost at least one boot which is why it is essential to heed the warning signs.

The cliffs of Sheppey are happy to give up their secrets but you must take care.

And it was those who have devoted years to scouring them for pieces of history whose advice could have averted disaster – if it had been listened to.

Daniel Hogburn has been collecting fossils on Sheppey for more than 20 years. He was the one who first reported seeing fault lines in the cliffs at Eastchurch three days before Emma Tullett's home Cliffhanger was destroyed in a landslide.

He took exception to claims that some of the sea defences installed to delay erosion had been deliberately vandalised and that fossil collectors had been undermining the work by digging in the cliffs.

He insisted: "They have not been vandalised. They are on the beach because of the forces of nature.

"Rain causes mud slurries which take everything with them as they slide towards the sea in winter. Heat from the sun cakes the mud which crumbles in summer. The wind and tides destroy everything else."

And he added: "The thought that something which, in scale, is no bigger than matchsticks, could hold back hundreds of thousands of tonnes of clay is nothing short of delusional.

"The very act of building the defences in the first place was, I believe, illegal because it involved dumping of hundreds of used car tyres. Both the Environmental Agency and Natural England gave strict instructions to only use natural materials to try to shore up the cliffs. It was a futile attempt doomed from the start."

He said he warned the organisers that the matting they thought would encourage plants to grow and stabilise erosion would only accelerate it.

"Instead, fossil collectors like myself and fishermen have been left to collect the netting which has ended up on the beach. Others have picked up the tyres which were swept along the coast to Minster."

He added: "Having spent more than 25,000 hours collecting fossils on Sheppey over the course of 20 years I probably know these cliffs better than anyone, including the scientists who study them.

"Never have I witnessed fossil collectors digging in the cliff along this section. To do so would be a complete waste of time and effort as the fossils naturally end up on beach where they can be found on the foreshore.

"The clay to fossil ratio is minuscule. According to a German scientific paper it is something like one shark tooth for every five tonnes of clay.

"As for the groups which visit Sheppey, I know each one personally and can assure you they all obtain fossils responsibly."

He said all books (including his own London Clay Fossils), websites and Facebook groups for fossil hunters explain how to find samples on the Island.

All of them tell people to stay away from the cliffs and to respect the Site of Special Scientific Interest.

He added: "The fossil collecting community is a tight-knit one made up largely of academics, professors, museum curators, teachers and policemen, all of whom respect the sites for their historical significance.

"None would allow the destruction of a world renowned site such as this, which is regarded as the best area in the UK for fossils from the Palaeocene era (65 to 25 million years ago).

"Sheppey's cliffs are extremely fragile and have been eroding in the form of rotational slippage for a very long time. They are one of the best places in Europe to witness such slippage. It is a natural process.

"I personally reported the crack in both Surf Crescent and Third Avenue three days before the fall.

"I informed Swale council that the fault line was running directly under Cliffhanger and that there was a larger fault line in the base of the cliff. I advised that a fall was imminent and that they should send out an engineer and condemn the properties immediately."

Desperate residents won permission from Natural England, the guardian of the cliffs, to try to delay the inevitable erosion.

Malcolm Newell, who lives in Surf Crescent at Eastchurch two doors down from the doomed Cliffhanger bungalow, founded the Eastchurch Gap Erosion Action Group in 2015 along with Minster and Swale councillor Peter MacDonald to try to save 16 homes at risk.

The pair have been calling on the Environment Agency (EA) to renew timber groynes to stop the beach being swept away at the bottom of the cliff but so far with no success. They have even offered to do the job themselves which they costed at £60,000.

They also suggested wire cages filled with rocks to protect the bottom of the cliffs, similar to nearby Warden Bay. As a temporary measure they installed bundles of branches known as faggots on the beach kept in place with wooden stakes.

Natural England, initially reluctant, agreed to a smaller £30,000 scheme, paid for by Swale council, in 2016, to allow matting to be installed to encourage, grass, tree saplings and plants to grow and bind the mud to stabilise the top of the cliffs.

Campaigners say it was beginning to work until the netting slipped. They blame that on the lack of defences at the foot of the cliffs.

Mr Newell, 70, said: "If this was looked at earlier and more was done, the cliff could have possibly been saved.”

Both have accused fossil hunters of undermining their efforts by digging in the cliffs.

Swale council's new administration says it has "continued to engage" with the EA to see if any new measures can be taken.

Farmer Stephen Attwood and his son James of SW Attwood & Partners put forward an ambitious £500m rival scheme to save the crumbling cliffs by creating a new four-mile sea wall and a coastal country park in 2016.

The pair, based at New Hook Farm in Brambledown, believed much of the cost of the huge construction work could be offset by using spoil from a second proposed Thames tunnel at Gravesend or the HS2 high-speed rail project.

However, the proposed scheme hit a brick wall with officials who insisted there was “no practical or economic solution” to the erosion despite the farmers insisting it could be paid for privately.

Stephen Attwood said the latest cliff collapse could have been avoided under their plan.

Mr Newell, a retired wood turner who bought his property in 2001, said: “The Environment Agency insists on a non-intervention policy for this stretch of coastline. But acres of farmland have already been swallowed by the sea.

“I am sick to the back teeth of everyone passing the buck. Something must be done to save our cliffs. Soon there won’t be anything left to protect.”

Cllr MacDonald said: "The tyres are not illegal. They are used as part of sea defences all over the world."

Sittingbourne and Sheppey MP Gordon Henderson has been fighting for the SSSI designation to be binned for years.

For more on the project at Eastchurch, go to http://eastchurchgap.blogspot.co.uk/

Read more: Stories from the Isle of Sheppey here