Sussex trug

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 white willow, also hand-shaved with a drawknife.

[1] They may have originated in Sussex because of the abundance of chestnut coppice and willows found on the marshes.

[5] Thomas Smith of Herstmonceux, displaying his trugs at the Great Exhibition of 1851, giving the basket wider renown:[3] he was rewarded when Queen Victoria purchased several for members of the royal family.

[6] 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.