Stories of Wycombe at Work | Wycombe Furniture Industry Memories
Stories of Wycombe at Work
(part of the ‘Truth or Folly’ Exhibition at Wycombe Museum)
High Wycombe was once the centre of Britain’s chair-making and furniture industry, with large factories such as G-Plan, Parker Knoll and Ercol. For generations the town’s factories and workshops produced furniture that was exported across the world.
Behind this industry were thousands of workers whose skills shaped the town and its communities.
Stories of Wycombe at Work is a project collecting memories of Wycombe’s furniture industry.
If you or someone in your family worked in the factories, workshops or related trades, or if you have memories of how the industry shaped life around you, I would love to hear your story.
This project is part of the exhibition Truth or Folly. You can share a memory in the gallery there or leave a story here.
Supported using public funding by Arts Council England.
Share your memory
You might like to tell us:
• Who in your family worked in Wycombe’s furniture industry?
• What do you remember about the factories or workshops?
• How did the furniture trade shape life in the town?
• Are there any sights, sounds, or smells that you remember?
Please leave your memory in the comments below.
Short memories are welcome. Even a few sentences can help preserve Wycombe’s working history.
Since my son started family history work we have found that lots of our family worked in the chairmaking trade, even bodgers. I thought I was the first in the family to be a chair maker but I was wrong.
I started my apprenticeship with W Davis Chairs Ltd. in 1980 after contacting the Chiltern Training Group. I worked for Davis’s for 4 years and then went into bespoke upholstered furniture at Davison Highley, Piddington. I have now been there 42 years.
Funny stories:
While at W. Davis Ltd, they brought in chair parts for a cheaper option from, I think, Thailand. One crate of chair parts was sent with a crusty alligator/crocodile in the bottom of the crate! I guess as a great prank. 🙂
Also someone parked their car in our car park near Loakes House – so the forklift driver just lifted it up and moved it outside the site. 🙁
While working for Davison Highley, I made a sofa for Princess Diana’s last photo shoot. Various TV set sofas. Some swivel chairs for a movie Tombraider 2 (2001) where Paramount Picture came out to view the chairs and tell us that they needed to be wider to fit a fat man who had to die in it!!
Still working in the trade and volunteering at Wycombe Museum too. <3
(Shared via the exhibition comments box during the Truth or Folly exhibition at Wycombe Museum)
I remember as a school girl at St. Bernard’s Convent in Harlow Road, that all you could smell on some days, was the smell of the shellac used by the French polishers in the Skull Factory in Queen’s Road. It was a very strong smell of pear drops and bubble gum combined. They obviously didn’t have the same health and safety standards back then in the 1960’s.
Lintafoam in Loudwater was the same in many ways but that smell was of burnt rubber. I guess they made the cushions for the chairs back then in the 1970’s.
Long before that the rush workers lived miserable lives in the damp and smelly conditions of their workshops/homes which gave them lung infections from which they died, many were children affected by their parents work. Cane and rush workers also had toughened hands due to the rough work they had to undertake.
(Shared via the exhibition comments box during the Truth or Folly exhibition at Wycombe Museum)
I remember my grandfather. His grandfather was the founder of Whartons Chair Factory on Desborough Street.
(Shared via the exhibition comments box during the Truth or Folly exhibition at Wycombe Museum)