High Wycombe near Marlow is justly famous for it's chair making. But Marlow also had a chair making factory for 40 years and the employment it offered provided the reason for many families move to Marlow so it deserves a post of its own.
Marlow's business was called the Buckinghamshire Chair Co Ltd, and many Marlow people were involved in it in one way or another - as workers, managers, shareholders and directors. Initially based in the riverside building usually referred to as the Tithe Barn by the bridge, then in St. Peters Street, it finished up off Victoria Rd with an entrance in Dedmere Rd (after 1907).
But back to the beginning. The year 1872 was a difficult year in the chair industry in nearby Wycombe. There was a bitter dispute about wages and employment conditions ongoing with strikes and lockouts featuring. A trade union was formed and it negotiated the pay settlement. In this environment, a group of investors in Marlow decided to set up a chair making concern here. This was not an uncontentious decision to all. Many thought the Marlow company was exploiting the labour dispute to gain contracts and skilled workers "idle" in Wycombe. Others thought a rival employer would encourage competitive wages, although considering the number of furniture factories already existing in Wycombe, this seems optimistic. The Marlow manufactory was opened in 1872 and it specialised in Windsor backed and rush seated chairs, although it did make many others as well as other furniture. The advertisements for workers follows convention and asks at first for men to complete particular tasks such as turning the legs or finishing the seats. In the early years some of these men may have been outworkers, completing their work at home from materials supplied to them, but later it is clear the chairs were both made and assembled in the workshops of the Chair Co. The works were steam powered by then, which needed more room. The Victoria Rd site was also advertised as a steam saw mill, a role it would still fulfill under different owners after the demise of the Chair Co.
Chair seat caning is associated with a role that women workers often filled elsewhere, at least earlier on. However the frequent adverts for workers to complete this task in Marlow always say it is suitable for "steady" men. Perhaps because the ads often also say that they wanted the workers to ideally perform other roles at the works. These "extra" duties may have been regarded as more suitable for male staff at the time. I do have reports of some women working in the workshop however.
Troubled Beginnings
The start of the company was a little shaky. Many local people bought shares and many expressed hope the company would bring prosperity from a new direction into Marlow. But some also expressed doubts the company would thrive in such competitive conditions, and some also said Marlow did not "want" chair makers. Their reasons are not usually elaborated on but chair making men were sometimes blamed for all kinds of bad behaviour or disorder - perhaps because they were often politically active - for example the Marlow election riots of 1880 were said to be largely the work of Wycombe chair makers at the time.
Rumours about the financial health of the company dogged it's first few months. After less than a year 4 of the directors resigned without warning or explanation - James Morgan, Reuben Nereus Smith, Lawrence Smith and James Roberts. Some sections of the press seem to take this personally and heap insults on the four for committing an act of cowardice, and endangering the companies future without good reason. ("Cave in at the slightest approach of danger...feint of heart...deserted their post...ill-considered in the extreme" etc etc.) They said such men were not wanted in business. However at the meeting objections to the resignations were only voiced by one shareholder who said that the directors had, by attaching their respectable names to the business, induced people to buy shares in a company they had no real confidence in. It was suggested the other shareholders were philosophical as they had had a chance to examine the books and were satisfied enough with the balance sheet. Later the directors would be elected and retire by rotation. It should also be said that the resigning directors did not sell their shares either and the Smiths continued to be closely involved, acting as managing directors again later.
The first manager, Mr Hughes came from North's chair manufactory in West Wycombe where he had been 20 years.
At the Tithe Barn
The very first workshop for the chair co was adapted in September 1872 from what was almost always referred to at the time as the Tithe Barn, on the bank of the Thames, immediately next to the suspension bridge. An ancient building, it was nevertheless considered ideal for conversion into a workshop, polishing shop and stove room. To admit light, the old bricked up windows were opened up. It was intended as a temporary solution, until more spacious facilities were adapted and fitted out in St Peters Street. (The former Gibbons Brewery site, purchased 1873.) However it looks as though the company continues to use the barn in some capacity until it's sad demolition.
Chairs for the railways
But despite their inauspicious beginning, the company thrived. In 1874, they were described as making solid progress. In the previous 12 months they had sold £4000 worth of goods and were receiving orders exceeding their capacity to supply them. By 1875 they employed 60 men. In that year these workers, accompanied by their "wives and sweethearts" had a days summer holiday.* A number of horse drawn vehicles pulled up outside the St Peters Street workshops and conveyed the crowd to number of attractions including the ever popular Burnham Beeches and the town of Windsor. The shareholders received comfortable dividends. In 1879 the fact they could get a dividend despite a general commercial depression was credited to careful management and a desire not to over reach themselves ambition wise. The Chair Co was "helping to sustain in some way the prosperity of the town" said the Bucks Herald.
The chairs were available to buy all over the South East for example at Perrin's in Hastings. The Bucks Chair Co employed travelling salesman to drum up trade orders, from furniture retailers and commercial organizations. Some of these salesman started out as chair makers themselves and were promoted during their employment at the company, for example William Tanner. One of their biggest contracts was to supply chairs for all stations and offices over the First Great Western network, from 1892. They were already supplying chairs to the London and North Western and London and South Western railways. The timber was local, and a number of Marlow landowners sold wood to the factory.
The Chair Co maintained a cricket team that mostly played against other chair makers such as Glenister's of Wycombe and Cottons of Lane End, or other large works teams such as one from the Brewery in Marlow. But the first match of the season was always the married v single match involving employees all from the Buckinghamshire Chair Co.
In the 1890s and early 1900s things still looked rosy at least from the outside. The South Bucks Standard tourist guide to Marlow of 1891 even recommended the factory as a worthy local sight if you had half hour to spare - although how welcoming the poor workers would have been had too many visitors taking up this suggestion remains to be seen! The company invested in new steam powered machinery for the Victoria Road site although not all of it was especially popular with the neighbours. In the summer of 1910 the residents of the Glade Road area complained about the loudness and frequency of the steam whistle. The company promised to try and use it a little less.
Filthy Conditions
A large outlay on machinery did not leave the company perhaps with much funds for routine maintenance. Even so, the factory was increasingly poorly looked after as time went on. In 1898 reports came to the attention of the local sanitary and building inspectors that the works buildings were in an extremely poor condition. The Inspector of Factories had visited and was shocked by the dilapidated state of some of them. A visit by the council team including the Medical Officer Dr Dickson confirmed this. They concluded that the men working in framing shop no 2 were working in a building that was in a very dangerous condition. Furthermore some of the other buildings were cobbled together and "rudely constructed" with windows that could not be opened for ventilation - although the large number of broken panes probably helped things! The privvy (toilet) was in a "ruinous" and filthy state. The premises as a whole were crowded with rubbish and all the workshops needed whitewashing inside to bring them up to a basically clean and sanitary condition. The factory had no water supply at all which has a serious effect on the ability to keep it clean. Orders were made for repairs, cleaning and whitewashing to be carried out. Perhaps most happily for the men, the toilets were to be rebuilt.
Ominous signs
In February 1912 the company issued a circular informing their "friends in the trade" that the they were suffering from an increase in costs in every direction, and a higher price for materials in particular. So they would be compelled to increase all prices by 5% from March 1st. Some people praised this action, and hoped some consent would be reached with Wycombe chair makers to raise their prices by a similar amount. It was thought that undercutting each other was endangering commercial viability and preventing any rise in wages for the workers.
But it was not to be. By September 1912 the company was in liquidation. The freehold of the site including the "modern machinery", all fittings and stock in trade was offered up for sale. There were no takers for the whole concern so in October the freehold was offered separately and in late November the stock including half finished chairs, tables and music stands were auctioned off on the premises.
Fire!
The cleared out site suffered a significant fire a fortnight later. The fact the buildings suffered huge damage at a time they were still insured by the company aroused gossip but no cause for the blaze could be established. The fire started in the deserted site in the early hours of the morning. It began in a series of workshops, mostly made of wood, that ran in a block from the Victoria Road entrance to the engine and boiler house. It took hold quickly and the fire could be seen from a considerable distance. A crowd gathered despite the early hour. The Fire Brigade under Capt H J Smith arrived to find flames already leaping the gap between the the burning block and the next outbuilding. More worrying still, cottages in Duchess Place and Victoria Road were considered to be in danger and the householders began removing furniture from their homes. But the location of hydrants both in Victoria and Dedmere Roads meant a plentiful supply of water and thankfully the high wind of the night before dropped. So the significant damage was limited to the buildings in which the fire had started. Speculation that a spark from an engine at the nearby rail station was the source of ignition was immediately ruled out because of the distance the spark had to travel. Fireman Sidney Chalk was the only man injured, by a fall of burning timber. It seems his injuries were thankfully not serious.
Notes.
Some of the known shareholders in 1872 include Charles Carter, J H Bridges, Charles Miller Footitt, "Mr Sellman" and Alfred Ilsley. And in 1895 - George Meakes, A Davis and A Lawrence. It had two trustees when it formed - Col. Thomas Peers Williams and Thomas Owen Wethered MP.
* Working at the factory was not always a happy time, even when sanitary repairs had been made. A fight broke out between two men in the storehouse in 1875, and it seems cordial workplace relations could not always be counted upon in general! In above case Isaac Avery was given a reduced fine for what was considered an "aggravated" assault on fellow chair maker Charles Bird who had called him names during a petty arguement.
Written and researched by Kathryn Day.
Related posts:
Lane End chair makers here
Royal furniture makers the Mealings here
Biography of director Reuben Nereus Smith here
To find every mention of an individual on the blog use the A-Z Person Index in the top drop down menu, and for other posts about Marlow crafts and trades see both the General History option here and the Specific Shops Streets etc menu.
©Marlow Ancestors.
Sources
Furniture Gazette 1892
Timber & Plywood Vol 6 1888 (Middlesex Publishing Co)
Kelly's Berks, Bucks and Oxon directory 1883, 1911 (Kellys Directories Ltd)
Kelly's Directory of Merchants, Manufacturers, and Suppliers 1907 (Kellys Directories Ltd)
The Directory of Marlow, and Tourist Guide to Marlow & the Thames 1891, South Bucks Standard.
Berkshire Chronicle 07 Feb 1888
Newspapers from the British Library Archive and accessed via the BNA: South Bucks Standard 4 November 1891, Bucks Advertiser 30 November 1912, Bexhill on Sea Observer 18 May 1901, Maidenhead Advertiser September 4th 1872, 4 December 1912
Report by the Inspector of Factories 1898 (HMSO)
