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A community hub is helping to save a traditional Sussex craft from extinction. The Sussex Trug industry is critically endangered, with only five people making the wooden baskets in the country. On Saturday, March 22, trugs of all shapes and sizes were for sale at Alexandra Park Greenhouse during its Wood Market.
Expert Rupert Bozeat starts to fashion wooden utensils (Image: Sussex Trug) Robin Tuppen, who runs the Thomas Smith Trug Shop in Magham Down, near Herstmonceux, has launched an umbrella group for the craft’s practitioners to help save the industry. It is called the Sussex Trug Heritage Centre, a not-for-profit limited company. Mr Tuppen has also started a Crowdfunder campaign to raise money to set up a craft centre and he is seeking a Heritage Lottery Fund grant.
Robin Tuppen shows his range of Sussex Trugs (Image: Sussex Trug) The greenhouse group has partnered with the Heritage Centre and the hub off St Helens Road will display and sell some trugs. Mr Tuppen said the current style of trug was invented by Thomas Smith, of Herstmonceux, in the 1820s but the idea dates back to Anglo Saxon times. The craft currently uses some materials from Finland and Latvia, with birch wood from Poland.
He added: "Traditional trugs are made with chestnut, with cricket willow for the boards, but at present these are in short supply." Other stallholders at Saturday’s market included the Men’s Shed, the Ore-based project that provides a hobby and social interaction for men and women. Jerome Hill, a Men’s Shed trustee, said members make and repair items.
Income from sales goes towards the centre’s running costs. Men’s Shed member Thomas McDowell displayed his wood and stained glass sculptures at the market. They can be bought via the Men’s Shed or on Mr McDowell’s Etsy website: woodstainedglass.
Design expert Rupert Bozeat, who ran two wood carving classes at the greenhouse on Sunday and Monday, March 23 and 24, demonstrated his craft at Saturday’s market, with bowls, utensils and other products for sale. Tania Turner showed how to make brushes using leather handles with broom corn or coconut fibres for the bristles..
