A museum of dolls' houses is to close after five years with the loss of eight part-time jobs.

The museum in Station Road, Petworth, will close on October 29 after the building's owner decided to sell.

More than 100 dolls' houses will be auctioned off at Sotheby's in November or December after the owner failed to find anywhere to store or display them.

The museum is open between Thursdays and Sundays until it closes.

It opened it doors in 1995 and has been attracting up to 100 visitors a day this month.

The houses, which are in 1:12 and 1:24 scale, have been collected for 20 years by Helen Zetter, who lives in the Petworth area.

Dottie Smith, who works at the Doll House Museum, said she and seven other part-time workers were being made redundant because of the closure.

She said: "We have enjoyed working here and everyone is sad it's closing because we have enjoyed being part of it but we all have other things lined up.

"It is a collection of modern dolls' houses so they are not antique and include a barge with punks on it and a Tudor house.

"It started when Helen had a few of the houses and used to show them for charity.

"When the collection grew, she needed somewhere bigger and opened the museum.

"The idea behind this very different collection is that it gives future generations an idea of how we live at present.

"Although lots of avenues have been explored she has been forced to sell them because they take up a lot of space.

"She is of retirement age and moving everything and starting again just wasn't on.

"We do hope the collection will stay in one piece."