Sussex's independent spirit: why shopping local is worth the detour

Walk down Lewes High Street, through Uckfield on a Saturday or along the front at Seaford, and you'll notice something a retail park can't copy: the person serving you often owns the place.

Independent shops, cafés, growers and makers give Sussex towns their character, and they keep jobs and spending close to home.

The last few years have tested them. Energy bills, business rates and online competition have squeezed even well-loved names. Many have adapted by adding click-and-collect, hosting workshops or teaming up with neighbouring traders for late-night shopping events.

Knowing where it comes from

Sussex shoppers like to know who made what they're buying. Ask at a farm shop and you'll often hear which field the potatoes came from, or which village the honey was gathered in. That conversation is half the appeal.

Some names have been at it for generations. Harveys has brewed beside the River Ouse in Lewes since 1790, and John Harvey's descendants still run it. Newer arrivals, from sourdough micro-bakeries to vineyards on the Downs, are building the same loyalty one customer at a time.

The same question, asked of the kitchen cupboard

That "where's it from?" instinct now shapes how many people shop for everyday staples too, including the ones that never see a market stall. Traders who are up before dawn often keep breakfast simple: porridge, eggs, or a smoothie on the way out of the door.

For some, that includes a tub of protein powder on the shelf. Ingredient lists in this aisle vary a lot, so it pays to turn the tub round and read the back. Naked Nutrition, for example, built its range of protein powders around short ingredient lists. Its unflavoured grass-fed whey protein powder contains one ingredient, whey, with nothing else added.

Because it has no flavour of its own, people tend to stir it into porridge, blend it into a smoothie or fold it into home baking. Those who prefer to avoid dairy can find pea-based options in the same range.

Five ways to back local this winter

1. Start your Christmas list on the high street. Vouchers from an independent café, bookshop or deli keep the spending in town.

2. Leave a review. A few kind lines online cost nothing and help small firms get found.

3. Shop the season. November brings apples, pears, leeks, parsnips and squash, and a local grower can usually tell you how they like to cook them.

4. Read labels back to front. UK ingredient lists run in order of weight, largest first, so the first few words tell you most of what's inside.

5. Vary your protein. Beans, lentils, eggs, fish, dairy and nuts all provide it. The British Nutrition Foundation's guide to protein sets out which everyday foods supply it and how much adults need.

Four things you might not know

● Banoffee pie is a Sussex invention. It was created at the Hungry Monk restaurant in Jevington in the early 1970s, and a blue plaque on the building still marks the spot.

● Sussex wine has its own protected name. In 2022 it became the first major UK wine region granted Protected Designation of Origin status, the same protection held by Stilton and Cornish clotted cream.

● The garden trug was reinvented in Herstmonceux. Thomas Smith developed it in the 1820s, Queen Victoria ordered some at the Great Exhibition of 1851, and trugs are still made by hand in the village.

● Whey is the "whey" in curds and whey. It's the liquid left behind when milk is turned into cheese, the very thing Little Miss Muffet was eating on her tuffet.

Next time you shop

Independents rarely have big marketing budgets. What they have is regulars. Whether it's a loaf on a Saturday, a voucher in December or a chat about where the honey came from, every visit helps keep Sussex's high streets worth walking down.