POPULAR tourist attraction Seven Sisters Sheep Centre will close its doors for the last time in September.

Terry, and Pam Wigmore have owned and run the centre in the South Downs National Park for 29 years and have now decided to retire.

Each year the centre welcomes thousands of customers from as far away as America, who make the pilgrimage to the village of East Dean near Seaford to see the sheep.

Terry, 69, said: "We have had a fantastic time and we are both very proud of what we have established here. It is genuinely a very popular attraction for locals and visitors across the world.

"However, we both feel that the time is right to move on and to enjoy our retirement. We will miss our visitors and, of course, also the sheep."

The sheep centre in a classic example of a 17th Century Sussex flint barn. Its visitor appeal comes from being such a unique attraction where people get the opportunity to experience a traditional family run working farm.

It was set up by the couple in 1987 after Terry was made redundant as livestock manager at Birling Manor Farm.

Having experienced a great amount of interest from the public at lambing time, Terry and Pam decided to venture into the unknown and became one of the first farms to diversify into an open farm visitor attraction.

Over the years, Terry's interest in different breeds of sheep has seen his flock grow to become the largest private collection of sheep breeds in the world, which at its peak saw Terry owning 57 of the 63 native British Breeds.

Sadly now though the flock is to be dispersed.

Terry said: "My 70th birthday next April will be the first birthday I have been able to celebrate in more than 50 years as I have always been too busy lambing.

"It has been really important to us to allow people to touch and feed the animals but each year health and safety rules have made this harder and harder to achieve."