Seven Sisters Sheep Centre

50.752°N 0.207°E / 50.752; 0.207

The Sheep Centre in July 2008

The Seven Sisters Sheep Centre was a farm near East Dean, in the Seven Sisters Country Park of the South Downs. It held a large collection of about 50 sheep breeds, including rare breeds no longer raised by commercial farmers, and a number of Southdown sheep.

Besides sheep, other animals on display include goats, pigs, rabbits, guinea pigs, cats, geese and ducks, a cow, a Shetland pony, and a donkey.

Visitors can feed the animals feed pellets, bottle-feed the lambs, or take a ride on a tractor. Terry Wigmore, the owner of the farm, also demonstrates sheep shearing and milking.

Wigmore founded the Centre in 1987 when the estate for which he worked as a livestock manager closed off its livestock operations. He bought 120 of their sheep and began his own business.[1] Wigmore says: "We used to lamb the estate ewes through these yards, and every weekend there would be loads of people looking over the gate, trying to see in. I thought I might make a living inviting them in. The next year we started doing tours, then I decided to make it a full-blown tourist attraction."[2]

It closed in 2016.

References
  1. "Nothing as precious as a new born lamb". Eastbourne Herald. Eastbourne. 10 March 2003. Retrieved 26 August 2010.
  2. Watkins, Jack (3 May 2008). "A celebration of our shear diversity". Telegraph. Archived from the original on 21 April 2013. Retrieved 26 August 2010.


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