Here's a question for you. Why does Wycombe Wanderers play in front of a stand full of people who call themselves the Chairboys? Why is the club mascot a fuzzy character called Bodger? And why, when you scratch the surface of this town, do you keep finding chairs?
The answer is the whole reason High Wycombe exists in the shape it does today. And this July, Wycombe Museum is throwing a month-long party to celebrate it: the Chair Festival 2026, running across the whole of July. 🎪
If you've ever wondered why "chair" and "Wycombe" go together like the Rye and a sunny afternoon, this is your moment to find out — and there's loads on for everyone, much of it free.
So, what's the chair thing all about?
Let's rewind a couple of hundred years. Wycombe sits in a valley wrapped in Chiltern beech woods, and beech is brilliant timber for turning chair legs. Where there's good wood and clever hands, an industry follows.
Enter the bodgers. These were the craftsmen who set up shop right in the woods, turning chair legs on foot-powered pole lathes among the trees. (Yes — that's where Wycombe Wanderers got Bodger. It's not a random name; it's a tribute to the people who built the town's trade.) The legs came down the hill, the rest of the chair was made in town, and Wycombe became the undisputed home of the Windsor chair.
From those woodland workshops grew something enormous. By the Victorian era, Wycombe was reportedly making thousands of chairs every single day at its peak. Furniture factories lined the streets, and when the nation needed seating by the thousand, the order came to Wycombe. The town quite literally furnished the country.
And here's the best bit: it never really stopped. Names like Ercol still make beautiful furniture rooted in that same heritage, and craftspeople across the Chilterns are still turning, shaping and caning to this day. This isn't a history lesson about something that died — it's a living story, and that's exactly what the festival is here to celebrate.
What is the Chair Festival, then?
Wycombe Museum's Chair Festival is a month of exhibitions, events, workshops, talks and family fun across July 2026, all dedicated to the town's chairmaking heritage — past and present.
The headline moment is a genuinely exciting one: the grand opening of the brand-new Chair Discovery Centre. 🪑
For years, the museum has looked after a nationally significant collection of over 200 chairs that the public has never been able to see — tucked away in storage, out of reach. The Chair Discovery Centre changes that. From July, it opens its doors on scheduled Open Days, giving you a proper behind-the-scenes peek at chairs that have been hidden away for far too long. If you're even slightly nosy about what museums keep in the back (guilty 🙋), this one's a treat.
The whole thing is organised by Wycombe Museum and supported by Opportunity Bucks, the Rothschild Foundation and We Make Wycombe — with a small army of local partners pitching in, from Bucks New University and the Chiltern Open Air Museum to Ercol, the Wycombe Repair Café, Chiltern Rangers and High Wycombe Library. It's a proper town-wide effort.
The Highlights
🪑 Chair Discovery Centre — Grand Opening & Open Days
📍 Chair Discovery Centre, St Mary Street | 📅 17th July and on scheduled Open Days — a first-ever public look at 200+ stored chairs.🎪 Discover Chairs!
📍 The Hub, 1–2 Cornmarket | 📅 10th-19th July — the museum takes over the We Make Wycombe Hub in town.👯♂️Creative Dance: The Chairs Are Alive
📍 Wycombe Museum | 📅 8th July — ever wondered what museum chairs get up to when no one's looking? They dance. A playful creative movement session for preschoolers.🌳 A Bodger's Woodland Walk
📍 Bottom Wood, Studley Green | 📅 11th July — wander the Chiltern Society's Bottom Wood with expert John Morris and discover how the old bodgers worked among the trees.🪚 William Hands Factory Tour & Talk
📍 William Hands, Dashwood Avenue | 📅 15th July — go inside one of the few furniture manufacturers still going in town, with a tour and talk from a name that's been making chairs here for years.🌲 Talk: Secrets of the Wildwood
📍 Wycombe Museum | 📅 19th July — a journey into an ancient Chiltern beechwood, the very landscape that kicked off Wycombe's chair trade.🌱 Chairs of the Future with Chiltern Rangers
📍 Community Tree Nursery, Winchmore Hill | 📅 26th July — a family-friendly session looking at the trees that'll become tomorrow's chairs.🪑 Discover & Make: Miniature Chair Making
📍 Wycombe Museum | 📅 28 & 29 July — learn the town's chairmaking story, then build your own miniature Windsor chair. Ages 4–11.
👉 Plus more events across town throughout July — family days, demos and talks are still being added, so check the festival page for the full, up-to-date programme.
Why you should actually go
It's easy to live somewhere your whole life and never really know its story. The Chair Festival is the rare chance to fix that — and to do it the fun way, with your kids in tow, a coffee from the Museum café in hand, and 200 chairs you've never been allowed to see suddenly within reach.
Wycombe made chairs for the world. This July, the town's finally putting them centre stage. Pull up a seat — you've earned it. 🪑
Heading along to something at the Chair Festival? We'd love to hear about it — tag us so we can share it with the rest of Wycombe.
For more of the town’s story beyond its furniture heritage, explore six historic sights in High Wycombe.
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