Wycombe Wanderers

In America you have ‘The Steelers’, ‘Wildfire’, ‘Thunderhawk’s’, ‘Red Tide’… in England we take a slightly different approach. Wycombe are known as the the Chairboys.

Chair. Boys. Boys who make chairs.

Fearsome.

Wycombe even has a chair museum. Google reviews say it is awful. It sounds incredible to me. Not one to sit out, I’d imagine.

And then there is the badge. It has a swan on it. Nothing to do with a chair.

So why the heck aren’t they called the Swans?

So, let’s take a look and #GetTheBadgeIn.

Let’s start with that Swan.

And, interestingly, it again (like Newport County’s badge) links back to the bloody 1st Duke of Buckingham (he was the one who fought with Henry V and supposedly tried to kill Joan of Arc once they had captured her in the 100 Years War). His shield was the chevron – but he also appears to have adopted the Swan as his symbol. But why? … the jury is out a bit, but there are two possible theories – and maybe they’re both true.

Firstly, the Swan links back to an old myth, called the Knight of the Swan. This story first appears written down in 1192. Essentially it involves a French King who had seven children, all of whom were born with a chain around their neck, and all of whom – bar one – turned later in a Swan.

What they were smoking in Medieval France is another matter. That said, the story was picked up and adopted by Buckingham’s family line, who claimed to be descendants of the surviving child in the story.

More likely – but no reason why it can’t also be true – is that one of Buckingham’s ancestors was related to a Viking called Sweyn (there was a Viking King of England called Sweyn Forkbeard – who was father of King Canute). In true British fashion again, this Mr Sweyn, adopted the Swan image as a pun on his name. (Port Vale also have a pun in their crest – their scythe is a reference to the Sneyd family (the handle of a scythe is called a sned).

So that’s the swan. A local Viking who adopted the symbol as a pun and then later it fell nicely into a French fairy tale.

Ok, so what about this nickname? The Chairboys.

Wycombe’s chair-making heritage dates back hundreds of years, with local craftsmen producing up to a staggering 4,700 chairs a day at the industry’s height in the 1800s.

In Wycombe, long before mass production, skilled chair-makers known as "bodgers" crafted chair legs by hand, shaping wood with remarkable speed and precision. Their artistry helped establish Wycombe as the “chair capital” of Britain. They specialised in making ‘Windsor Chairs’ (Google them – you’ll have sat on one, you probably own one).

Wycombe is perfectly located next to a) the Chiltern hills with a lot of high quality Beech woodland (Beech make excellent chair legs) and b) it is on the road between London and Oxford (both academics and politicians spend a lot of time sitting, I guess) so demand was high.

With the industrial revolution the industry got a major boost and by the mid-19th century, Wycombe's bustling workshops produced 4,700 chairs daily, making high-quality, affordable furniture for homes, schools, and churches across Britain. In 1877, the town celebrated Queen Victoria's visit with a grand arch made entirely of chairs, which I assume must have been a first for the Queen.

But then the chair makers are fond of their strange traditions. Today the city still holds a public ‘weigh in’ and ‘weighing out’ ceremony for their mayor, to see if they gained weight at the expense of the public purse. This should be rolled out nationwide in my opinion.

The football team itself was formed in 1887 after a meeting of furniture workers at the Steam Engine pub on Station Road, High Wycombe. It’s likely that they adopted "Wanderers" after the Wanderers team, winners of the first FA Cup in 1872.

So that’s Wycombe for you then. Steeped in historical swans and Viking puns. A proper north London working man’s club. Proud of their local Buckinghamshire and its roots in England’s Viking past, with an eccentric passion for a niche industry and craft they came to dominate. Proud to stand on their own, perfectly crafted, four legs.