SHAPING A SUSSEX CLASSIC

From cleaving chestnut poles by hand to fastening wafer-thin plywood, every Sussex trug at the Thomas Smith Trug Company is made with heritage and human touch. Rachel Graham meets Robin Tuppen to see how this humble, sustainable basket became a national treasure - and how a new heritage centre hopes to secure its future

- Rachel Graham

Step through the doors of the Thomas Smith Trug Shop near Herstmonceux and you’re met by the tang of woodsmoke and steaming chestnut. Nothing here is rushed or automated: the rhythm is the tap of copper nails and the hiss of the steamer. Trugs – the boat-shaped baskets perfected by Thomas Smith in the 1820s – are still made much as they were two centuries ago: sweet chestnut for the handle and rim, thin willow boards for the body.

The willow is a byproduct of the cricket-bat industry that once kept trug makers well supplied. Today, that stream has all but dried up, with availability and a 300% price increase being the main barriers. Most suitable willow now goes straight to cricket bat companies, leaving trug makers to adapt. “The last decent batch of willow we had was October, two years ago,” says Robin Tuppen. “Bat makers take nearly all of it now.”

The lack of willow for the Royal Sussex Traditional trugs led to the development of the Wealden model, in various sizes, sizes and depths. The workshop is temporarily using aircraft-grade birch plywood from Finland for the boards – ultra-thin, resilient and historically used in Mosquito aircraft and wartime gliders. “It’s incredibly tough for its weight,” Robin explains. “Using birch ply kept the craft viable when willow got scarce – it’s really saved it.” A resumption of willow supplies next year will see the Royal Sussex Traditional trugs back in production.

A trug’s journey begins not in the workshop, but in the woods. The raw material is sweet chestnut, coppiced from estates across Sussex, Surrey and Kent, though it’s getting harder to source.

“We’re working with a local estate to take over about 40 acres of chestnut coppice,” says Robin. “That’ll give us a long-term supply. Once it’s back in rotation, it’ll outlast me – but that’s the point.”