An artist has paid tribute to the West Pier by making a sculpture out of a piece of its crumbling frame.

Paul Lewis, 50, owner of Treehouse Timber and a part-time artist, has created a sculpture which features two bronze seagulls posing on one of the window frames reclaimed from the pier’s now collapsed concert hall.

Paul said: “It is such a shame – every time I drive past I remember the pier is going to be gone soon and I wanted to do something to pay tribute to it.”

The two seagulls are based on casts taken of stuffed gulls.

Paul said he found one of the gulls in an antique shop.

It was more than 100-years-old and had a plaque on it which read: “In loving memory of Matilda.”

He has called the sculpture, which took three months to complete, Matilda.

The sculpture will go up for sale at Southeby’s at Summers Place in Billinghurst, with a suggested list price of £14,000.