What makes a Windsor chair different?
Published in Windlesora 17 (1999)
© WLHG
The best answer is that a Windsor is a chair whose components are all slotted into the seat – in other words, a stool with a back. Chairs like this started to appear in the 17th century but the name Windsor is first mentioned in the early 1700s in inventories from America. It probably refers to chairs being embarked at Windsor to be taken to markets in London, because chairs of this sort were not made in great numbers in the town itself. Instead the trade became concentrated in High Wycombe. The first factories began to appear in the early 1800s and by the 1870s Wycombe was said to be producing 1.25 million chairs a year, many of them Windsors.
Although Wycombe dominated the trade, Windsors were made in many parts of the country and distinctive regional styles developed. Some forms were even particular to certain villages, such as Yealmpton in Devon which produced chairs with continuous back and arms, or Mendlesham in Suffolk whose chairs had square backs and were finely made in an adapted Sheraton style. In America, Windsor chairs developed a wide range of elaborate styles.
Today, most Windsor chairs are made in small workshops or by individual craftsmen for the luxury end of the market. However, some large firms, such as Ercol of High Wycombe, have continued the tradition of mass-producing Windsor chairs, though adapted with new styles for the modern market.
James Rattue
Assistant Museums Officer, Wycombe Musum
Windsor Local History Group 