I worked with Wycombe Museum on a new project to investigate the social lives of the people who shaped the industrial heritage of the town from the early 19th century to the present. We applied for funding to investigate and capture the social history of industrial life in High Wycombe, with a particular focus on the social lives of those working in the furniture industry from the mid 20th century.

The town’s many furniture factories (at least 84 in 1978) have shaped its character and identity since the early 19th century. One key source tells us that industry had an important role in supporting the social life of the town (Rowntree, 1951). This included providing sports and other recreational facilities including social clubs, arranging events and outings, and giving financial and practical support to civic and leisure institutions such as parks and clubs.

We wanted to know if the social life of industry was inclusive and assisted assimilation into the community of the diverse social and cultural groups that entered the industry from the 1950s. We were investigating the ways in which the social and leisure landscapes and institutions in the town today have been shaped by the past. The project was designed to improve the visibility of High Wycombe’s unique industrial heritage and connect communities more closely to a heritage that is in danger of being lost.

We planned an oral history project to capture the memories of past employees and their families to discover how and where they played sports and socialized, and the extent to which their sporting and leisure activities were supported by their places of work. We envisaged a comprehensive website telling stories of High Wycombe’s industrial past and the people who shaped it. This would link to the Museum collections and to the High Wycombe Furniture Archive to create a comprehensive, integrated furniture history archive which we hoped would be useful to the local community, and to furniture and social historians worldwide.

We looked forward to working with local people in restoring a sense of pride in High Wycombe’s industrial heritage, which suffered following the decline of the industry in the 1980s and 1990s.

This project did not receive funding, but the work we did for the National Heritage Lottery Fund project ‘Chalk, Cherries and Chairs’ (see above link ‘Heritage and Public History’) was successful in linking the local community more closely to High Wycombe’s unique furniture heritage through exhibitions and events. In addition, the project contributed to the curation of new furniture galleries in Wycombe Museum, led by the Museum’s curator Dr. Catherine Grigg. See https://wycombemuseum.org.uk/.