Sussex trug
A Sussex trug is a wooden basket mainly used for gardening. It is made from a handle and rim of coppiced sweet chestnut wood which is hand-cleft then shaved using a drawknife. The body of the trug is made of five or seven thin boards of cricket bat willow, also hand-shaved with a drawknife.[1] They were probably originated in Sussex because of the abundance of chestnut coppice and willows found on the marshes.
Shapes and sizes became standardised, the most well-known shape being the "common or garden" trug ranging in volume from one pint to a bushel. However, there is a diverse range of traditional trugs from garden and oval trugs to the more specialised "large log" and "walking stick" trugs.[2]
History
Trugs date back to the 1500s,[3] with active trade in Horsham.[4]
Thomas Smith of Herstmonceux, displaying his trugs at the Great Exhibition of 1851, gave the basket wider renown;[3] he was rewarded when Queen Victoria purchased several for members of the Royal family.[5] Further appearances at international exhibitions followed at the 1855 Universal exhibition in Paris; the First International Forestry Exhibition in Edinburgh 1884 and London International Inventions Exhibition.[5]
By the 1970s, Herstmonceux remained as a significant centre of trug production, with four firms operating in or near that village: Greens of Hailsham, R. Reed, R.W. Rich and Sons, and Thomas Smith and Sons.[6]
References
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- ↑ Image of a "walking stick" trug from thetrugstore.co.uk
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External links
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