Industry
Wycombe was once renowned for furniture making (the town's football team is nicknamed the 'Chairboys') and furniture design remains an important element of the town's university, Buckinghamshire New University. Among the best known furniture companies were Ercol and E Gomme. The largest remaining furniture maker is Stewart Linford, creating bespoke furniture and limited editions. The Living Chair Museum is sited at Stewart Linford's premises displaying many antique Windsor chairs and the tools that made them. The River Wye runs through the valley, where beech trees were cut down by the furniture industry, forming the town centre (circa 1700), with housing along the slopes (some areas still surrounded by woods). The town was also home to the worldwide postage stamp and banknote printer Harrison and Sons. More recent industries in the town include the production of paper, precision instruments, clothing and plastics. Many of these are situated in an industrial area of the Cressex district, to the south west of the town centre. The two largest sites are those belonging to the companies Swan (tobacco papers, filters and matches) and Verco (office furniture) who until 2004 sponsored the local football team, Wycombe Wanderers.
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Famous quotes containing the word industry:
“Bankers, nepotists, contracts and talkies: on four fingers one may count the leeches which have sucked a young and vigorous industry into paresis.”
—Dalton Trumbo (1905–1976)
“... we’re not out to benefit society, to remold existence, to make industry safe for anyone except ourselves, to give any small peoples except ourselves their rights. We’re not out for submerged tenths, we’re not going to suffer over how the other half lives. We’re out for Mary’s job and Luella’s art, and Barbara’s independence and the rest of our individual careers and desires.”
—Anne O’Hagan (1869–?)
“The development of civilization and industry in general has always shown itself so active in the destruction of forests that everything that has been done for their conservation and production is completely insignificant in comparison.”
—Karl Marx (1818–1883)