Where
The High Wycombe Chair Making Museum is run by Robert Bishop and his wife, who also own the Kraftinwood building that houses it. It is a 10-minute drive from High Wycombe town centre and is part of the Kraft Village site, which comprises a gallery and a shop, and offers wood-turning classes.  
 
What
The museum is a celebration of the chair-making heritage of the town, which was one of the world’s capitals for the craft until the early 20th century. Bishop says the venue takes visitors into the world of traditional chair-making via an interactive tour.
The process starts with a bodger who would use unseasoned wood to create chair legs on a pole lathe, a benchman who would then create the seat, and a framer to assemble the chair. “It puts it in perspective when you think that, by 1875, furniture makers in High Wycombe were producing 4,700 Windsor chairs every day,” says Bishop.  

Opened
The museum opened in June 2016. But Bishop says he was simply reviving an old institution. “We purchased Kraft Village and re-established the Chair Making Museum there – it used to be in a different location under different ownership, but had closed.”
 
Collection
The museum has original tools and machinery, such as shaving horses, pole lathes and treadle lathes, as well as Windsor chairs on display. It also features illustrations of chair arches designed for important occasions in High Wycombe, such as the visits of Queen Victoria, Prince Albert and Queen Elizabeth II.  
 
Highlights
“We have a wonderful treadle lathe – a foot-operated woodturner – once owned by Silas Saunders, who was one of the last three bodgers working until 1962 in Buckinghamshire.
“His workshop was behind his father’s pub, The Crooked Billet,” says Bishop. “The pub became infamous as the setting for Silas’s sister Becky’s liaisons with Dick Turpin the Highwayman.” The museum also has a pair of rare miniature chairs, thought to be from the workshop of the chair-maker Thomas Treacher & Co in the mid-1800s.
 
Help at hand
The museum is run by Bishop and his wife, with several volunteers.
 
Budget
“The museum is funded by entrance fees and donations,” Bishop says. The entrance fee, including a guided tour, is £4, with reductions for children.
 
Sticky moment
Occasionally, the museum has had problems with making visitors aware of its existence. “The brown tourist road signs in High Wycombe are still – after more than three years – pointing to the demolished building where the museum used to be,” Bishop says.
“We have at last had a promise from the council to redirect the signs towards us.” Bishop hopes this will prevent visitors from arriving in a rage after following the signs to the wrong location.
 
Visitors
Bishop characterises the number as modest, but expects it to improve after the redirection of the tourist signs.  
 
Future plans
“We want to make visitors aware of High Wycombe’s wonderful chair-making heritage,” says Bishop.  
 
Miles Rowland is a freelance writer