Little Common farmers' market

"More and more people want stalls," he said, in advance of the next session which is at St Martha's church hall on March 13 from 9-12noon.

"We have far more stalls now than when we started, so for shoppers who came along at the beginning, and didn't find anything, it might be worthwhile coming back again.

"We are now having to put some stalls outside - we are spilling out of St Martha's church hall, but it does look rather nice to see them outside there. "The trouble is when we started there were crowds of people going and slowly numbers have dwindled a bit.

"But the farmers' market is so popular with stall holders - we have of course been having one or two to do with environmental products, but we have now got olives, chutneys, jams and various jars, and a stall selling locally produced chicken, lamb and beef.

"It is marvellous how it has grown because at one time I was always phoning around to get people to come, and it was a headache, but now they are calling me."

The farmers' market in Little Common has been held once a month for almost a year now while the one in Parkhurst Hall in Bexhill town centre has been going for over five years.

Cllr Wood said: "Lots of other ones have close - the one in Pevensey Bay is the latest one to have gone, and Rottingdean and Fairlight have closed - and they all have a great struggle to keep going. The bigger ones manage but the smaller ones don't."