** Sorry we will be closed all day on Sunday 17th November but

                                  open as usual again on Monday 18th **

OUR NORMAL OPENING HOURS ARE :-

Monday, Tuesday, Friday and Saturday 9am to 5pm.

Please note: Wednesday and Thursday closed all day.

Sunday open 12pm to 5pm.

We have incorporated our Museum, it is now -  High Wycombe Chair Making Museum CIC which is a not for profit company   and as such its income is entirely dependent upon entrance fees and kind  donations. The company objective is to inform visitors about Wycombe’s wonderful chair making heritage. We explain and demonstrate with old original tools how the Bodgers, Benchmen and Framers made the Windsor chairs.

High Wycombe has a wonderful heritage, the majority of the town and surrounding area were involved in the production of 4,700 Windsor chairs per day in 1875!!.

Our guided tour includes an explanation of the various tools on display with illustrations and exhibits showing how the Bodger’s worked in the local Beech woods cutting down the trees,  cleaving, shaving and turning the round or turned parts of a chair i.e. mainly legs and stretchers. 

The benchmen would make the remaining parts of the chair in wooden sheds and workshops, often in their back gardens.

The Framers assembled the parts from the Bodger and Benchmen to produce the finished chairs.

Various examples of Windsor chairs are displayed and explained.

Available now

Dvd’s  of our Museum tour have now arrived in stock !!

If you wish to order please contact us for details thank you.

We close at 5pm however our last Museum guided tour starts at 4.00pm*.

To find us just follow the brown tourist road signs

to Chair Making Museum and they will bring you direct to us at

Kraft Village, HP12 3AJ

Our normal opening hours:-

Monday to Saturday open 9am to 5pm

Wednesdays and Thursdays CLOSED all day

Sundays open 12 to 5pm

If you are interested in volunteering in our Museum or Gallery  we would love to hear from you, please contact Robert on 01494 533302 or e-mail us using our contact page.

 New arrivals

We received a donation of two very rare miniature chairs to our Chair Making Museum by Miss Mary and Miss Elizabeth Cattell originally from Cuddington and who now residing in Haddenham. These excellent sample chairs are believed to date back from the time the old Treacher Warehouse was cleared out and Skulls took over!.

We now have a working treadle lathe which has great provenance and belonged to Silas Saunders of Stoke Row. Silas  was one of the last three Bodger’s in Buckinghamshire still working right up to the early 1960′s. The lathe takes pride of place and can be seen working in our Museum tour. 

Whilst not directly linked to chair making we have a lace bolster (pillow) circa 1850 together with a selection of bobbins including the famous South Bucks thumper. These are relevant as most of the ladies began caning and rushing after years of being exploited as lace makers. We have an example of South Bucks lace which has a very fine diagonal mesh, this was a hard pattern to make and so took a lot longer to make than standard lace.

We will be pleased to discuss school, society, club and corporate bookings. these can be tailored to suit individual needs. Please contact us via the contact form.