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Buckinghamshire's Customs and Industries

The Furniture Industry

High Wycombe is still known as a centre of the furniture trade. The industry has its roots in the activities of the 19th century chair makers, who made the Town the chair making capital of the world.

The craft of chair making in the Chilterns dates back to before 1700. Production is these early days focused on making chair parts, which were sent up to London to be framed-up into chairs. From the 1790s onwards local landowners made premises available in High Wycombe for work to be completed in the Town itself.

In the early days most of the lathe turned chair parts were made by turners, or 'bodgers', living in the villages surrounding High Wycombe. The parts were made by using beech logs which were firstly split and roughly shaped using a side axe and then further shaped with a draw shave while the turner sat on a wooden shave horse. The turner's most famous piece of equipment, the pole lathe, was powered by a long, flexible length of sapling and was used to cut the finished design into the chair part. The finished article was then sold to Wycombe factory owners. Until the introduction of the stream powered circular saw, pit-sawyers also worked in the woods, producing the planks for seats and other chair parts.

Between 1800 and 1860 the number of workshops in High Wycombe grew from a handful to 150 and by 1875 their total output had risen to an estimated 4700 chairs per day! As a result the population of High Wycombe Borough Parish grew by 46%. Some of the 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 and the Duke of York and Princess Mary. 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 celebrated the arrival of Prince Edward in 1880.

In the 1880s manufacturers began to diversify into making higher-class and more general furniture. With the introduction of machinery production soared after the First World War, with the local trade extending its range further. The Second World War saw further major innovations that had significant effects on the industry, such as the introduction of plywood.

The 1950s were prosperous years with the advent of national advertising. However, the relocation of many London companies to High Wycombe during the war caused property prices to soar, forcing several big companies to move elsewhere. Employment fell from 10,000 in 1939 to approximately 4,000 in 1990. In the 1990s the trade was affected by the recession. However, the roots of the furniture industry run deep in the Town, enough to ensure that furniture will continue to be made in High Wycombe for many years to come.

Places to visit:
Bucks County Museum, Aylesbury
Wycombe Museum, High Wycombe

Swan Upping, Marlow

Swan Upping dates from medieval times, when the Crown claimed ownership of all mute swans. Today, the Crown retains the right to ownership of all unmarked Mute swans in open water. This ownership is shared with the Vintners' and Dyers' Companies, who were both granted rights of ownership by the Crown in the fifteenth century. The new crop of cygnets are still counted and marked every year along the Thames.

Every July Marlow plays host to the 12th Century ceremony, when six wooden skiffs, led by the crested flag of the Queen's Swan Marker, process along the Thames from Sunbury Lock to Abingdon as liveried officers mark the swans as the 'property' of The Queen or the Vintners and Dyers Societies. The procession stops for refreshment at the Two Brewers in St Peter Street, where Jerome K Jerome, author of Three Men in a Boat stayed and the day finishes at the Compleat Angler Hotel.

Places to visit:
Marlow

Weighing in of the Mayor, High Wycombe

The ceremony, in May, surrounding the annual election of the town's new Mayor is unique to High Wycombe and is thought to date back to medieval times. It is not known how the ceremony was ordered originally but there is a direct report from 1678 of a change in procedure arising from the misconduct of a certain dignitary who became very drunk and 'offered affronts to several gentlemen'. The townsfolk were so disgusted by this behaviour that he was stripped of his burgeeship and 'in token thereof it was ordered that the great bell should be rung out in testimony of his misdemeanours'. Therefore the 'old' mayor was tolled-out on the morning of the election of his successor and, on the parade to the Church, the procession was preceded by a drummer who continued to drum the old mayor out.

Following the election of a new Mayor he would be drummed around the market place in procession and the church bells pealed to announce to the town that a new Mayor had been chosen.

In the 'weighing-in' ceremony, the newly elected Mayor, the Charter Trustees, Honorary Burgesses, and the outgoing Mayor are all weighed at the Guildhall in the High Street. As their weight is recorded the Macebearer shouts out the weight, adding the words 'and some more' if the Mayor has gained weight, or 'and no more' if there is a weight loss or it remains the same. The spectators wait for the call and, if the words 'and some more' are heard, the person being weighed is jeered. It is traditionally believed that they have grown fat at the expense of the towns' people. If the words 'and no more' are heard, the crowd cheers and claps. If no weight has been gained, or some lost then they must have been working hard for the good of the town.

Chiltern District - Early Industries

Wood

The Chilterns are famous for the beech tree. The wood was used particularly for chair making. Windsor chairs were named both for the Castle, for which George I ordered a set after discovering one while sheltering in a local cottage from a sudden storm, and from the market to which they were taken weekly by packhorse. The chairmakers, often called 'bodgers', lived in the woods in the summer, turning chair legs, rails, stretchers and spindles with great skill on pole lathes or wheel lathes. One log would make four dozen legs, 18 inches long. Chesham made other types of 'woodware' as well, becoming a centre for wooden shovels, yokes and sieves. Its wooden spoons too were used at Windsor Castle.

Lace

Bucks Point Lace was worked in cotton with an intricate pattern attached to a pillow. Numerous bobbins of wood or bone were used. They were carved, inscribed, weighted with beads and handed down from mother to daughter. The lace was made up into narrow lengths to edge pillowcases, handkerchiefs and dresses. Amersham lacemakers worked in black silk, to such effect that Paris fashion houses sent over their buyers to make a personal selection. The silk mills were at the junction of Station Road and London Road.

Straw Plait

Wheat or barley straw was worked for Luton hat makers with two simple tools, a 'splitter' and a 'presser'. 'Piping' was the local speciality. Twenty yards was a good day's output. Children started young, at the plait schools in Waterside, Chesham, they plaited as they learnt their three 'Rs'. Whatever the weather, plaiters could not sit by an open fire as the smoke would discolour the plait. They had to make do with sitting over an earthenware 'chaddy-pot' filled each morning with hot ash.

Watercress and Cherries

Both the Misbourne and the Chess are ideal for cress, and cressbeds in Chesham, Latimer and Lower Bois were farmed for their produce. Prestwood and Holmer Green were famous for their cherry orchards, which were white and beautiful in Spring. The 'Prestwood Blacks' variety were a special favourite.

'The Three Bs'

Chesham was noted for its three Bs - Beer, Boots and Brushes. The breweries have long since gone. In addition, as many pubs, streets and place names remind us, a host of trades and crafts were once practised in Chiltern. There were fullers, dyers, weavers, brickmakers, tilemakers, potters, blacksmiths, wheelwrights, tanners and cobblers. Watermills along the Chess and Misbourne valleys provided power to grind corn. Weirhouse Mill and Bois Mill on the Chess later manufactured paper. In 1845, the owner of Amy Mill (where the A416 crosses the Chess) installed an innovative steam driven plant. Windmills on exposed sites met the needs of upland villagers, those at Coleshill and Cholesbury remain. A smock mill, thought, to have originally stood in Chesham, has been re-erected in Lacey Green near High Wycombe and restored to working order by the Chiltern Society. Clay and sand were extracted around Bellingdon, Chesham and Cholesbury for bricks with a colour range from pale yellow to red, purple and blue. The pond at Chesham Bois was created in this way. Elsewhere it was chalk that was taken to lime the fields, hence the pits in so many local fields and woods. When hard and unsuitable for liming, the chalk, known as clunch, was used for building. Local flint was the popular building material and knapping a local skill. The handiwork of generations can be seen to this day...

Places to visit:
Chesham Museum
Amersham Museum
Lacey Green Windmill