Wycombe Museum is best known for chairs. Our fantastic collection tells the story of the local area through furniture, but also a wide variety of other artefacts.
Wycombe Museum looks after a collection of over 24,000 items, broken down into three categories: Chairs & Furniture, Local History, and Art. Learn more about each section using the buttons above.
Our collection represents High Wycombe and the surrounding areas, formerly Wycombe District. This area includes Marlow, Stokenchurch, Princes Risborough and the nearby villages. The collection includes objects dating from prehistoric times through to the present day – the majority from around 1850 onwards.
Wycombe Museum looks after and displays the collection on behalf of Buckinghamshire Council, for the benefit of local people and visitors to the area.
Chairs & Furniture
Wycombe is famous for chairs.
Nowhere else in the UK has a chair story like Wycombe.
No other place made chairs in the same way. No other place had such a broad influence on furniture making, or developed into a town with such furniture making as a singular dominant industry.
Making wooden chairs, especially Windsor chairs, developed as a woodland craft in the 1700s. This became centred on High Wycombe from around 1800, and soon hundreds of small factories were crammed into the town, with a few larger ones too. Some of the bigger furniture factories would become household names in the 20th century, including G-Plan, Parker Knoll, and Ercol.
The chair industry shaped High Wycombe, and without it the town we know today would not exist. Our chair collection is nationally significant, and represents the progression of Wycombe’s furniture industry from a woodland craft to a single industry town supplying England and beyond.
Wycombe Museum also holds an extensive collection of items related to furniture making; furniture tools used in woodlands and industrial workshops, miniatures, patterns, designs, and an extensive archive of documents and catalogues from companies such as Glenister, Parker Knoll, Skull, Birch, Bartlett, Ercol and Gomme, the makers of the G-Plan range.
Visit the Chair Discovery Centre
The new home for Wycombe Museum’s stored furniture collection & archives.
About Chairs
Chair of the Month Archive
Search Our Chair Database
What is a Windsor Chair?
3D Chair Scans
A History of Chair Arches
Me & My Chair Digital Exhibition
Chair & Furniture Collection Highlights
Wheelback Windsor Chair
A ‘High Wycombe Wheelback’ refers to the wheel-shaped design in the chair’s back, and is the type of chair that is most associated with High Wycombe. The term ‘Windsor’ describes the chair’s construction, rather than any specific design. They are made with wooden sticks, legs and arm pieces all inserted into a wooden seat. This Windsor chair was made in the 1840s in High Wycombe and sold by A. Jessop of Sheffield – chairs made in High Wycombe were exported to sell all over the country.
But why are they called Windsor chairs, and not Wycombe chairs? The finished chairs were loaded onto barges at Windsor to be transported by river into London, long before the industry was centred in High Wycombe. Find out more about Windsor chairs in our blog post.
Museum number HIWLH : 2007.83.2
The ‘Wycombe Pitt Chair’
This is the oldest Windsor chair in Wycombe Museum’s collection, made in the 1740s. At the time when this chair was made, High Wycombe was not yet a centre for chair making, and wouldn’t be for another 60-70 years. This chair was made in what is now part of Slough, by John Pitt – one of the earliest known Windsor chair makers and possibly the earliest maker with chairs that survive. It is one of only four remaining chairs by this maker and the only one in a public collection.
It was not unusual for chairs made in the 1740s to be painted, but it is rare for the original painted surface to survive in this condition. The chair is decorated with the coat of arms for the City of Bath. John Pitt’s workshop was on the main route between London and Bath. It is likely that a travelling dignitary stopping in Slough for refreshment saw John Pitt’s chairs and ordered this one for a building in Bath.Â
Museum number HIWLH : 2007.44
Child’s Chair with Cane Seat
This chair was made around 1885 by Edwin Atkins. Atkins owned a factory in Gordon Road, and had the chair made for his daughter. Although High Wycombe is best known for wooden-seated Windsor chairs, rush and cane seated chairs were also made here in large numbers. Cane-seated chairs like this were typically used as bedroom furniture.
Before 1900 cane seats were usually made by women and young people in the home – a cottage industry, rather than in factories. It was common for children to collect the frames and cane on their way home from school and deliver the finished seats to the furniture factory first thing next morning. You can learn more about women’s work in the furniture trade here.
Museum number HIWLH : 2528
 A Bodger’s Tea Break
This photo shows a glimpse into the daily lives of furniture makers. The Dean brothers, both turners, are taking a break from turning in Hampden Woods, Great Hampden. Alec Dean (left) and Owen Dean (right) use waste wood shaving to light the fire for their tea kettle. The wood shavings are from trimming down lengths of wood into ‘billets’, the rough cylinders of wood that will then be refined and turned into chair legs on the lathe. This photo was taken December 1949. Watch footage of the Dean brothers at work in our ‘Wycombe in Film‘ compilation.Â
John Mayes, Museum curator and Librarian visited many of the last bodgers in Wycombe woodlands, around the late 1940s and talked of the ‘remarkable variety of tea with a wondrous smoky flavour about it’ he tasted on his visits.
Museum number MHW:02304
Apprenticeship Indenture
This is an apprenticeship indenture – a legal contract – made in 1884. Oliver James Thompson of Naphill was putting forward Joseph Walker to be apprenticed to George Holt, a chairmaker of High Wycombe. The indenture states that Walker was to be trained by Holt in ‘the art of Windsor chairing’, but also stipulated a number of rules that Walker must follow, including that he would ‘not contract matrimony… nor play at cards or dice tables or any other unlawful games’ for the eight and a half year duration of his apprenticeship.
Museum number HIWLH : T 3.5.1994.6
Brace and Bit
An early 20th century chairmaking brace and bit used by chairmaker Alfred William Saunders of Stokenchurch. A brace (the wooden part) and bit (the steel part) are used to bore holes needed to assemble a chair from its component parts. The bit in this tool has a line filed across the back, which was probably used as a depth gauge. Mr Saunders started work in 1903 while still at school and worked for furniture companies such as Bates and Anderson in Stokenchurch, Large’s in Wycombe, and Owen Towerton. He made Windsors and other chairs. His initials ‘AS’ are stamped in 3 places on the tool.
Museum number HIWLH : 2001.40.18
‘Librenza’ Room Divider
This room divider was made by G-Plan between 1958 – 1960. G-Plan transformed the furniture market with innovative designs and marketing. Although the area is best known for chairs, by the start of the 20th century many other types of furniture were being made. By the mid-century, well-known names in the Wycombe furniture trade included Parker Knoll, Ercol as well as G-Plan.
You can learn more about the history of G-Plan here.Â
Number number HIWLH : 2000.45
Skull Broadsheet
This print, produced around 1865, shows 141 styles of chair available for purchase from the Edwin Skull chair company of High Wycombe. It reads ‘Edwin Skull, manufacturer of every description of chairs, High Wycombe, Buckinghamshire’. It also details awards the company won, and features designs for ‘Skull’s Patent Plectaneum Chair’, a well-known folding chair.
The Skull firm traces its roots back to Charles Skull (1780 – 1851), who was a local chair japanner – an Asian-inspired style of varnishing. Charles’ son, Edwin continued his work as a chair-maker. The Skull firm was eventually bought by the company that was to become Ercol in 1932.
Museum number HIWLH : 1994.1
Q-Stack Chair
This stacking chair was designed by Robin Day of High Wycombe in about 1953 and manufactured by Hille in London.
In the 1950s, new ways of constructing chairs were made possible by new materials such as plastic, plywood and tubular steel. This chair uses plywood, with tubular steel legs held on by two bolts. It has a hand grip in the back, so that it can be easily carried. Unlike traditional chairs, several of these chairs can be stacked on top of each other when not being used. It was designed as a low-cost space-saver for meeting places, cafes, halls and homes.
Museum number HIWLH : 1995.103
About Factories & Furniture Production
Furniture Manufacturers List
Here, Chair & Everywhere Heritage Trail
About Bodgers & Turners
Women in Wycombe’s Furniture Trade
A Potted History of Ercol
Watch Archival Furniture Making Films
Recorded Chairmaking History Talks
A Potted History of G-Plan
Furniture FAQs
Got questions about furniture?
Do you have a chair you’re hoping to learn more about? Maybe you want to know who made your furniture, or perhaps you have something you’d like to offer to our collection.
High Wycombe: Furniture Town
The history of High Wycombe has become synonymous with chair-making. However, chairs were not made here in large numbers until after 1800. Windsor chair making emerged as a woodland craft in the 1700s to become High Wycombe’s largest employer by the 1840s. The local industry was characterised by wood turners (who became known as ‘bodgers’) making chairs legs in the local woodlands, together with large numbers of small factories where other chair parts were made, and the finished chairs assembled. You can read more about bodgers here.
The geography of High Wycombe was important for the development of the industry. The landscape of the surrounding Chiltern hills provided an abundance of Beech woodland, with timber well suited to being turned on a lathe into chair legs. Other timbers used for chair making commonly included Elm for seats, and Ash which was steamed and bent to make arms and bow backs. Cherry and Yew woods were also frequently used. The location of High Wycombe, on a major route halfway between London and Oxford meant it was well suited for transporting the finished chairs.
Between the years 1800-1860 the number of workshops in High Wycombe grew from a handful to one hundred and fifty, and by 1875 their total output had risen to an estimated number of 4700 chairs per day – a remarkable figure. The area in and around High Wycombe became the biggest producer of chairs in the country, and between 1851 and 1871 the population of High Wycombe Borough and Parish grew by 46%.
An important factor in the growth of the trade was the massive growth in population nationally, particularly in London, which meant that the market for Wycombe-made chairs was constantly growing. The growth of the town as a production centre was sufficient to suppress the development of others in the same area. Demand from London and the South East was soon satisfied by exports from the Chiltern region and production responded to demand so quickly that no other town could compete. The trade continued to grow, its market spreading into the Midlands and the North. By 1850 the other regional centres such as the North West and the Cotswolds were in decline, as a direct result of this competition. The majority of workers in Wycombe’s furniture industry were male. However, female chair makers played an essential if lessser-known role. To learn more about the little-known world of women’s work in Wycombe’s furniture industry, check out our blog post.
Some larger firms were occasionally commissioned to design and produce presentation furniture for important events, including chairs for the weddings of the Prince and Princess of Wales (later Edward VII and Queen Alexandra) and the Duke of York and Princess Mary (later George V and Queen Mary). Very large commissions were regularly taken. In 1873 an order for 19,200 chairs for a meeting held by the evangelists Moody and Sankey was completed in a few weeks and despatched to London. On another occasion 8000 chairs were required for Crystal Palace, while in 1874 the firm of Walter Skull made 2500 rush-seated chairs for St. Pauls Cathedral.
Visits to the town by important people were sometimes celebrated by arches of chairs which were erected across the High Street between the Guildhall and the houses opposite. The most famous of these arches which celebrated the arrival of Prince Edward in 1880 shows the sheer range of chairs that were made in the area by this time. The base of the arch consisted of Windsors but the rest was made up of a great variety of different styles.
In the 20th century, much of High Wycombe’s output remained traditional, including antique-style reproductions and Windsor chairs. However, some manufacturers started producing more innovative designs during this period, including Ercol and G-Plan.
Our collection represents over 200 years of furniture making including a wide range of styles of chair: Windsor chairs from the 18th to the 20th centuries, cane and rush seated chairs from the 19th and 20th centuries, a small selection of chairs from other regions, 20th century chairs by companies such as Ercol, Parker Knoll and G-Plan and a small selection of other types of furniture.
Photograph of the inside of an unknown furniture factory in High Wycombe, around the 1920s. Several men assemble Windsor chairs from their component parts.Â
Image reference MHW:28289
Unnamed chair turners in Hampden Woods, near Great Missenden, about 1900. Men are shown with the tools for each part of the process. Each one of them would have made chair legs from start to finish.
Image reference MHW:02323
Learn more at The Chair Museum
Discover the lives of chair makers, how chairs are built, and how to become a chair expert in our Chair Museum galleries.
Chair & Furniture FAQs
What is a Windsor chair, and why are they called Windsor chairs?
A Windsor chair is, most simply, a stool with a back added. It refers to how a chair is constructed, rather than to a particular design.
Read our blog post What is a Windsor Chair here
Ironically Windsor chairs were not produced in Windsor. It might seem logical that they should be called ‘Wycombe chairs’, since so many of them were made in High Wycombe in the 19th century. But they were already called ‘Windsor chairs’ by the early 1700s, long before High Wycombe became a centre for chair production in the early 1800s. We know that Windsor was where chairs made in the surrounding area were loaded onto river barges for transporting to London. This is almost certainly how Windsor chairs got their name.
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Why did so many furniture factories catch fire?
Factories were made of wood, were full of wood used for the furniture, tools had wooden handles, and the air within factories was filled with sawdust and wood chippings. Open stoves were used for heating chair-glue, which set hard if it got cold. This combination made fires almost inevitable.
It has been suggested that some fires were started deliberately for the insurance money, especially towards the end when factories were becoming unprofitable, but these claims are unsubstantiated.
What do the initials stamped on chairs mean?
Many chairs will have initials stamped onto them, usually on the back edge of the seat. They are usually the initials of the chair ‘framer’ – the worker who put all the chair parts together to complete the chair. It made sure the worker was paid for all the chairs he completed. Initials on their own are not enough to identify a specific chair framer.
Can you tell me who made my chair, or when it was made?
Unfortunately, we can almost never tell you who made your chair, unless it has a specific maker or company mark. Throughout the area's furniture making history, there have been thousands of individual furniture makers working, and there is no list of all of them.
Your chair may be stamped - usually on the underside or back of the seat, if it's a wooden chair. If you're lucky, you may have a company name listed, so will be able to tell which factory it was manufactured for.
If you find initials, these usually belong to the chair ‘framer’ – the worker who put all the chair parts together to complete the chair. It made sure the worker was paid for all the chairs he completed. Initials on their own are not enough to identify a specific chair framer.
As for when your chair is made, we may be able to give you a general idea from the style, especially if it was locally made. If you email us a picture to info@wycombemuseum.org. This will be only an estimate though, as lots of reproduction furniture has been produced - for example, companies might have made 16th century-style chairs in the 1900s.
If your chair is a traditional wooden chair from the UK, we may be able to tell you which regional characteristics it has.
Why were some chair makers called bodgers?
Read our article on the history of bodgers.Â
Bodgers produced all the parts of chairs that were turned on pole-lathes – including the legs, stretchers, arms and rods. The rest of the chair was completed in the factories and workshops. Bodgers worked in the woods around Wycombe, within walking distance of their homes. Bodger is an informal name for these turners and it doesn’t appear to have become common until the early twentieth century. The first time it was written down was 1911. They never called themselves bodgers. When they had to record their job, they always used the more correct word ‘turner’.
It’s not possible to know exactly where the name came from – one idea is that it has links with the idea of a ‘bodged job’, and was a derogatory term used by workers in furniture factories when referring to men who worked in the woods. Or it may simply refer to men who produced incomplete chair parts, leaving the factory workers to produce the finished product. By around the middle of the 20th century, it no longer had any negative associations and was widely used to describe the specific, traditional and skilled job these chair makers did.
Can you give me advice on restoring my chair or furniture?
Furniture restoration is outside the expertise of Wycombe Museum.
We recommend contacting:
- British Antique Furniture Restoration Association
- The Basketmakers' Association (for caned seats)
Can I donate my chair/furniture to the museum?
Wycombe Museum’s unique collection has grown thanks to the generosity of local people. We're always grateful to anyone reaching out with things they think we may be interested in. That being said, there are things that we do and don't collect.
Our remit is the Wycombe area and we do not usually collect items that have a history from outside of this area.
We prioritise objects with a good provenance or background information. This links the artefact to people and makes it more interesting to visitors.
Please see our Offers to the Collection page to check whether your object is something we may be interested in, and whether we are currently able to accept offers.
Is there a list of High Wycombe furniture factories & makers?
Are there other places I can go to find out more?
Here are some external sources with further information on furniture & furniture making.Â
- British and Irish Furniture Makers Online
- Furniture History Society
- Furniture Making in High Wycombe (Article)
- High Wycombe Furniture Archive (by Buckinghamshire New University)
- Kraftinwood & High Wycombe Chair Making Museum
- Museum of the Home (Previously The Geffrye Museum)
- Regional Furniture Society
- Temple Newsam House
- Victoria & Albert Museum Furniture Collection
