Read the story of the Shillaker brothers, pioneers in the handbag trade who moved their business to Chesham, where they opened a small factory in Alma Road.

I was born in a council house in Latimer Road, the home of my grandmother and grandfather. My father’s parents, he too was born in Chesham. My mother came from Pontypridd in South Wales. She was in service in Amersham when she met my father.

The wail of air-raid sirens over Penge, South-East London on Sunday 3rd September 1939 dramatically changed the life of eight-year-old Kathie Smith.

Reggie was born to Reginald Joseph Gray and Gladys Rhoda, the daughter of labourer Jim Wright. Reginald’s family were Orkney Islanders originally, leaving for Gravesend in Kent where they went their separate ways.

Iris Lloyd – nee Cannings – tells her story of evacuation from London to Chesham during the war.

Hilda Flello celebrated one hundred years in Chesham

Bill Howard, great-nephew of the Howard Brothers, who founded the Woodware firm.

W.L.Broad, “Lawson”, followed his father into the Brush Trade. Alfred Carter Broad, “AC”, born 1851 in Diss, Norfolk, apprenticed into brushmaking, in London. After meeting and marring in 1876, Martha, nee Osbourn, of Eye, they set up home above his fathers hard ware shop in Bury St Edmunds, making brushware for local farmers.

Barry Wilkins story about working as a cooper in the premises opposite the Brewery on White Hill, behind Priest’s Garage.