the sussex trug

by Sarah Page

A Sussex trug is a unique form of basket, made of willow and chestnut. Sarah Page runs a workshop in Herstmonceux called the Truggery, where they make trugs in the traditional way. Over a period of twenty years, Sarah had managed to amass a considerable body of research about this fascinating local craft, and in October 2017 she turned to Otherwise to help realise her dream of making that research into a book.

Our first step was to examine the material Sarah had collected and to plan the overall structure of the book. At its heart would be a section showing how a trug is made from start to finish, in specially commissioned photographs. Sarah and our creative director Simon carefully storyboarded the sequences together and a photoshoot was undertaken in the local woodlands and at the Truggery’s workshop. The resulting pictures set the visual tone for the book as well as showing every stage of the making process, from the harvesting of raw materials through the steaming and bending of the willow and chestnut, techniques which give the trug its distinctive curved form.

Much of Sarah’s narrative was concerned with the history of the craft in the local area. To illustrate these sections of the book we created a map, a family tree, and undertook a wider search for historic pictures.

A compact hardback format was decided on, bound in chestnut-toned cloth embossed with the title and covered with a textured dustjacket. A beautiful linocut by local artist Charlotte Matthews was selected as the jacket image.

Ray Mears, a loyal customer of the Truggery, supplied a heartfelt foreword, and endorsements from Dame Judi Dench and Alan Titchmarsh MBE were also included. The book was launched on the 4th of May 2018, with a party held at Charleston Farmhouse, coinciding with a feature article in Country Living magazine. The Sussex Trug has gone on to be a bestseller in the local independent bookshops, and won a British Book Design and Production Award in November 2018.

“If it hadn’t been for Otherwise my book may never have been published. Their knowledge and expertise helped create a book to be proud of – and most importantly, one that people want to buy. ”

SARAH PAGE