Archives Month: February 2021

A tale of two furniture factories, Part 1 – West Wycombe

by Simon Cains

The first of two parts in this tale of Benjamin North and how he came to start his own chair making factory in West Wycombe... "On one of his trips, to Gloucester, Benjamin shared a hotel room with "the great chairmaker" (Benjamin's own words) Thomas Harris and his son. Mr Harris was from West Wycombe and was also a Wesleyan preacher. He appreciated Benjamin reading the Bible to them last thing at night and first thing in the morning..."