Always on
This project successfully funded on 24th April 2025, you can still support them with a donation.
This project successfully funded on 24th April 2025, you can still support them with a donation.
Aim: Sussex Trugs are critcally endangered: Heritage Centre urgently needed! Help save this historic craft and train new apprentices. Donate now!
For the past 42 years I have devoted my life to promoting the Sussex Trug Basket around the world. I have travelled extensively within the European Union and the United Kingdom, attending shows and visiting trade customers. We have customers all around the World but, sadly, world event over the past five years, have badly affected our small industry and there are now only four companies, employing less than 10 people in the whole industry.
We're a dedicated team passionate about preserving the unique heritage of Sussex Trugs. Our vision is to establish a vibrant Heritage Centre as a hub for the local community, safeguarding this historic craft for future generations. We'll use the funds to help renovate our 1914 village hall to make it into an attractive visitor centre to our visitors and to rent the historic coach house and stable block next door to provide offices and a diverse craft shop.
We also need to equip our workshop with newly crafted equipment and restored traditional tools for apprentice training, and to launch educational programmes with hands-on courses. This Centre will be a community hub for learning, ensuring the skilled art of trug-making thrives, so that we can help re-populate the industry as a whole. We believe in empowering local artisans and sharing this rich history with the world. Your support will directly fund the workshop, materials for apprentices, and the development of interactive exhibits that bring the story of the Sussex Trug to life.