'Hidden Hands: Women and work in the Chilterns’ Exhibition

Opening 7th March 2023

Historically, women’s paid work has often been belittled and forgotten. This exhibition hunts down the hidden women’s work in Chilterns villages that formed a crucial part of the local economy during the nineteenth and twentieth centuries.

Discover how the luxury goods made by these highly skilled workers contrast with the harsh reality of working long and poorly paid hours from their homes.

Hear stories of straw plaiting in Buckland; caning and rushing chair seats in West Wycombe; lace making in Great Hampden; and braiding and beading in Holmer Green. Come to learn more about the crafts, women’s lives and their impact on the Chilterns.

The six month long exhibition will open at Wycombe Museum on 7^th March, and has been curated by the Woodlanders’ Lives and Landscapes project team in partnership with Wycombe Museum &  Buckinghamshire New University, and forms the museum’s Summer Exhibition. A series of events including Discover and Make sessions, a family day, lacemaking workshop, Bodgers Pub Tour and a ‘memory day’ will take place alongside the exhibition.

• Exhibition opens Tuesday 7^th March, and runs until Sunday 10^th September 2023
• At Wycombe Museum – see opening times etc at wycombemuseum.org.uk/visit
• Free entry, all welcome, no need to book
• A series of events will run alongside the exhibition which will be listed here very soon