The long history of High Wycombe's Red Lion statue

He told me “I am celebrating my 70th birthday and when I look back I can see that I have led an eventful life, culminating in the loss of my tail earlier this year.

But the problem was very much more than just that, and I needed treatment to repair wounds elsewhere in my body, particularly in my rear quarters, including both legs.

I began my life in 1956, when my father retired and was sent to enjoy his retirement in Wycombe Museum. In the year earlier, 1955, he had received the ignominy of being painted white by some lads from Wycombe Rugby Club.

Although this was eventually washed-off, he never fully recovered from the shame of that. We are descended from a long line of bright red lions who have occupied that portico, which adorned the main entrance to the Red Lion Hotel, formerly a coaching inn, and to be painted white was too much for him.

I was born in the workshop in Easton Street of master woodcarver Frank Hudson, having been conceived by the Mogford family, the owners of the Red Lion Hotel. They wanted me to be ‘taller, bolder, and with more swagger’ than my father. I was getting really excited as the day approached when I was going to be moved from the workshop to my home on the portico. Before we left the workshop the woodcarver’s children were allowed to have their photograph taken ‘riding’ on my back – that gave me a great thrill.

At home on the portico outside the entrance to the Red Lion Hotel, I felt as proud ‘as punch’ and could survey the daily going-ons in the High Street For a few years I led a fairly uneventful life, until in the mid-1960s I began to hear rumours that the hotel was to be demolished. I began to fear for my future. However, I was very relieved when I heard that the portico and myself were to be restored when a new building was constructed to house the popular Woolworth’s store.

My life was then back to normal, albeit the portico was no longer outside the hotel but the Woolworth’s store, in a slightly different position. My next adventure came in February 1969. Some students from the Technical College decided to celebrate their ‘Rag Day’ by once again painting me white, thankfully this was easily washed off.

My life was then fairly uneventful until January 1990, when during a violent storm i was blown off the portico and smashed to pieces when I fell onto the pavement below. These pieces were then gathered up, placed in three large supermarket trolleys and taken to the back of the store. A wonderful man called Colin Mantripp then came to store and took me to his workshop. Colin is a grandson of Frank Hudson and also a master woodcarver. He knew exactly how he could put me back together again. Unfortunately a lot of me, about 50%, was so rotten that Colin had to carve new pieces. Later in 1990, when I had fully recovered from my injuries, I was allowed to return to my home on the portico.

My next experience came in 1997 when some vandals climbed up onto the portico, and broke-off and removed part of my tail. Colin again came to the rescue, as he did five years later when some drunken students pushed me off the portico. My legs were broken off and my tail shattered, which were all restored by Colin. In 2013 my tail again became detached from the rest of my body. This time the ‘repair’ caused me to despair – my tail was stuck back on with black ‘gaffer’ tape, which was later painted red. This work was carried out by a contractor employed by the owners of the building, Devonshire Holdings.

Unsurpringly, this ‘repair’ did not last long and I was soon standing there with my tail between my legs – literally. This was in 2015. I was told that several people then wrote to our local newspaper, the Bucks Free Press, who organised a Crowd-Funding appeal to raise the money required to properly repair my tail. Once again this was carried out by Colin, who also took the opportunity to give me some TLC and repair several other wounds in my body.

Over the next 10 years I received no regular health check-up and earlier this year the end of my tail broke-off, the reason is unknown. Devonshire Holdings once again refused to fund the repair and the charity, the Clare Foundation kindly agreed to provide the funds to allow Colin to once again restore me to full health.”

The Clare Foundation

Mike Clare, Founder & President of The Clare Foundation has commented: “We are delighted to support this historical piece of reconstruction. The Red Lion has been a sight in High Wycombe for many, many years and we are grateful to Mike and Colin, and their colleagues for keeping these very important artefacts in the public view.”

Mike Clare is probably best known as the previous Chairman and CEO of Dreams Plc, which he founded in 1987, growing it to over 200 superstores before successfully selling out in March 2008.

In 2009 Mike set up his own charity, The Clare Foundation, which helps improve the efficiency of other charities in Buckinghamshire, offering free support and advice, small grants, training, and networking events.

The second focus for the charity is helping people with their confidence, self-esteem, and general happiness.