What is the history of the trug?
The history of trugs goes back to the Anglo-Saxon era and it was originally made out of solid wood. Mr Smith modified the original trugs by making them out of lighter wood such as sweet chestnut or cricket bat willow to make them easier to transform or carry. A Sussex trug is a wooden basket. 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.
Where does trug originate?
The word trug comes from the Anglo-Saxon word trog which translates as boat- shaped article or wooden vessel. They were used then as measures for scooping grain. As this article has demonstrated the trug has evolved and many gardens will contain plastic and wooden trugs, used for different tasks. Firstly, the word trug is derived from the anglo saxon ‘trog’ meaning boat shaped vessel. It also has origins in Old Norse and Old German. In modern german it is a verb form of ‘carry’. We can see the roots in our modern words of truck and trough which are both movable containers.
Who invented the trug?
Way back in the heydays of the 1820’s, just before Queen Victoria ascended to the English Throne, a Man of Sussex, one Thomas Smith of Herstmonceux, made a decision about his life that was to have a profound effect on Sussex and the World. He invented the Sussex Trug! It is thought that the business was established around 1829 and by 1851 Thomas Smith trugs were made famous when Queen Victoria purchased some personally at the Great Exhibition. His innovations to the traditional designs and promotion of the crafts have given him a deserved legendary status amongst trug makers today.