In the Nostalgia page on November 17th we showed a picture of the 1772 painting by William Hannan of the High Street in High Wycombe. 

Uniquely the painting is accompanied by a commentary which names the people shown, with interesting biographical details about them.

Local history enthusiast Willie Reid and myself have been researching the characters shown in the painting and have been able to show that many of them were real people who were living in Wycombe in 1772.

We will be describing them in a series of articles in the Nostalgia page over the next few weeks. 

This week we will set the scene by considering how the High Street would have developed over the course of the 18th century up to 1772.

With the advent of turnpike trusts in the early 18th century roads were greatly improved.

The Beaconsfield to Stokenchurch turnpike section of the London to Oxford Road was completed by 1724.

Another turnpike road from Reading to Hatfield, completed in 1767, also passed through Wycombe. 

With improved roads came increased traffic and soon more coaches, carriers’ carts and heavy freight waggons were rolling along this highway. Stagecoaches, too, regularly passed through the town.

The Red Lion, from which a coach is emerging in the painting, was a staging inn where fresh horses would replace tired ones on stagecoaches, whilst passengers would take refreshments at the inn.

Horses were normally replaced every 15 miles or so and as Wycombe is some 29 miles from London this would be their second change, probably after Uxbridge, for any stagecoach on the way west.

There are actually nine inns in the scene. On the left of the street are the Three Tuns, followed by the George, the Catherine Wheel, the Maidenhead and the Falcon in the distance by the Guildhall.

On the right hand side there is the Antelope, the Red Lion, the Cross Keys and the Wheatsheaf.

With this increased travel came increased trade and Wycombe High Street took on a new lease of life.

Complementing this prosperity a new Guildhall, where the town council held its meetings, had been built in 1757.

This was financed by John Petty, First British Earl of Shelburne who lived at Loakes Manor (now Wycombe Abbey).

The new building contained one feature of the old - the supporting columns which provided space for market stalls.

Shortly afterwards the town council wanted to show how prosperous the town had now become and in 1761 employed the well-known Scottish architect Robert Adam, who happened to be working on West Wycombe House at the time, to design a new market house. 

Here butter, cheese, calves, sheep, lambs, pigs, geese, ducks, fish, turkeys, rabbits, chickens, pigeons were sold on market days. The cattle market was situated just behind the Guildhall.