"Musical Chairs"

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The other day I mentioned the Beech woods of Bucks and how chair making had become established in this area.

The men who worked in the woods were known as ‘bodgers’ and is the term given to the wood turner who makes the legs and stretchers which make the under frame of the chair.

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In the woods, the Beech was cut and then turned on a pole-lathe. A very crude but effective piece of machinery. A competent operator could turn up around twelve dozen chair legs a day. (enough for 36 chairs). In addition each chair required three stretcher pieces for the under-frame to link the legs.

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A Pole Lathe

The pieces were then taken to the factories in Wycombe to be joined to seats and backs to make the finished chair.

In the mid nineteenth century, there were about 100 furniture factories in Wycombe, turning out by 1874 over 1 ½ million chairs a year.

I found an excellent site here which gives a more detailed history of the Bodgers of Bucks.

And ......would you believe it, there is also this delightful Museum in Wycombe which preserves and shows the history of the chair making industry in this area.

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Wycombe Chair Museum

And now for some 'chair music' - well, a song actually.

Jerkins of Wycombe.

They sings lots o’ songs about varmers and such,

And folks in the country what never do much,

‘Cept diggin’ up turnips and makin’ of hay,

And they tells you, you ought to be thankful to they,

For sending you up all the good things they grows,

What fattens you up from your head to your toes,

But never a word do they sing about me,

Although I supports you it’s easy to see.

I’m Jurkins of Wycombe, High Wycombe in Bucks,

Where I lives with mi’ wife and mi’ fowls and mi’ ducks,

And I turn up the spindles and makes all your chairs,

Aye! I guess I’m the man at the ‘seat of affairs’.

I makes chairs of all patterns and chairs of all styles,

And most of ‘em travels some ‘undreds of miles.

Chippendale for the ladies what like to look smart,

And good old Brown Windsor for the plain simple heart.

I’m Jurkins of Wycombe, High Wycombe in Bucks,

Where I lives with mi’ wife and mi’ fowls and mi’ ducks,

And I turn up the spindles and makes all your chairs,

Aye! I guess I’m the man at the ‘seat of affairs’,

And whether you‘re high-born, or proud as can be,

You‘d all look very “low“ if it wasn‘t for me.

A song by Cecil Sparks.

Addendum:

In contemporary British English slang, bodging can also refer to a job done of necessity using whatever tools and materials come to hand and which, whilst not necessarily pretty, is nevertheless serviceable. Bodged should not be confused with a "botched" job: a poor, incompetent or shoddy example of work, deriving from the mediaeval word "botch" - a bruise or carbuncle, typically in the field of DIY, though often in fashion magazines to describe poorly executed cosmetic surgery.

A "bodged" DIY job is serviceable:

A "botched" DIY one most certainly is not- but a total failure.

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