Vernacular craft to machine assisted industry: the division of labour and the development of machine use in vernacular chair-making in High Wycombe 1870-1920

This paper explores the changes in vernacular1 chair-making in High Wycombe, UK, in the period 1870-1920. High Wycombe was once known as the chair-making capital of Britain, its fame initially coming from the vernacular ‘Windsor’ type chairs that were made in the locality, and then developing into a fully-fledged industry. This production was mainly based on the utilization of the extensive beech woods colloquially called ‘the Buckinghamshire weed’ that grew in this area of southern England. During the period reviewed, the chair-making industry of High Wycombe changed from being a mix of ‘bodgers’2 working directly in the beech woods and selling their turned parts to chair-makers, through various business organisations to fully developed factory based operations with specialised machines to assist each operation of chair-making. The paper will start with a brief background and history of the pre-machine situation and its divisions of labour. It will then follow with a discussion about the original chairmakers. This is followed by analysis of the trade of chair-making and the sub-divided processes therein. Built on this are analyses of the changes in tools to machines and the nature of the machine-assisted production systems used up to c. 1920 and the factory system. A brief discussion about the nature of distribution will be followed by an evaluation of the contribution made by High Wycombe chair-makers to the maintenance of a vernacular tradition.