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A quick potted history of the trug:
The “trog” was a wooden vessel hewn from solid timber in the shape of the round coracle boat that the Anglo Saxons used for their daily business.
In the 1820's Thomas Smith re-invented the “trog” carefully designing a lightweight basket using Sweet Chestnut and Cricket Bat Willow. When Thomas made his trugs there was a ready market for them on farms and in gardens throughout England.
In 1851, when he attended The Great Exhibition at The Crystal Palace in Hyde Park, London, that Queen Victoria visited his stand and was so impressed by his product that she ordered some personally as gifts for members of the Royal Family. Thomas Smith was awarded the Royal Warrant, hence the term Royal Sussex Trug.
The Royal Sussex trugs are still almost completely hand-made in the traditional ways and in of course still in Suffolk.
They make a delightful gift for a keen gardener or flower grower - or a real treat of a trug for life for yourself!