Chapter 5

The Literature Review outlined the changes that occurred in the furniture industry during the war years with regard to divisions of labour. However little has been written in any detail about the role women played in the furniture industry in High Wycombe, with furniture manufacturing being a male dominated industry. Additional evidence of the type of work women did during and after the war years was shown mostly in photographic images. The Literature Review also discussed the working conditions in furniture factories during the war years, and the subsequent poor state of Health and Safety. Changes were evident in the factory layouts and manufacturing methods since the widespread introduction of the National Grid, in the 1930s and 1940s. This chapter investigates the changes in working conditions in the High Wycombe furniture industry, and the impact of better working conditions on the health of the workers, especially the industrial disease nasal adenocarcinoma. The Literature Review identified Health and Safety as being a driver for change in the furniture industry, a main objective of this study. As discussed in the introduction, this chapter is quite different to the others. The section researching the link with dust and nasal cancer is work carried out in partnership with John Capper. This collaboration emerged from the research already being undertaken and has proved a vital link with the decline of the industry.