Sunday Times Where Was I? Holiday Competition

Bit of a dilemma regarding furniture this week, this is not the Eastender's area of expertise but near as I can figure it, the most likely answers are:

Q1. Lucian Ercolani (Ercol)

Q2. Waddesdon Manor

(NB for question one, I'm not sure about this at all, G-plan furniture by E.Gomme ltd of High Wycombe, was marked with the G-plan brand symbol but Ercol were also based in High Wycombe and had pioneered and perfected the steam bending of wood (English Elm) in large quantities or batches. Both of these manufacturers had products which were very popular in the 1950s. Ercol's products are marked with a lion symbol (also to be considered is the outfit started by the German fighter pilot who built comfy chairs in High Wycombe after his experiences sitting on a hard seat in his aircraft during WWI ie the Parker Knoll company). Things are further complicated by the fact that Ercolani, who produced Ercol furniture worked for E.Gomme for a while and also knew the guy who ran Parker Knoll. There was also a furniture manufacturer called James Clarke in High Wycombe who specialised in the production of small batches of furniture but although he produced a very popular '750 small' chair for government contracts, I can't find anything which says he became a household name in the 1950s. I did however find several references which said that Ercol became a household name around that time, so will take a punt (and it is a punt) on it being Ercol (could just as likely be E.Gomme). The plot thickens somewhat when you find out that Ercolani's son was a bomber pilot and a wing commander to boot, so that ties him in nicely with some of the other clues )

The initial clues place us in the village of Cookham, in Buckinghamshire, birthplace of Sir Stanley Spencer (c1891) an artist who was famous for his war murals. The village is home to the Stanley Spencer Gallery. Five miles north east of Cookham takes us to the town of Beaconsfield, which was once home to a controversial author called Enid Blyton ( the Eastender has read many of her books and doesn't think they are controversial at all, they reflect the social environment that the author lived in at that time and are a bit dated now, however, she is forgiven all because of her wonderful designation of the local plod, as PC Goon, actually, I think she could be responsible for the term 'Plod' meaning copper, coming into widespread use as well). Beaconsfield is home to the world's oldest model railway village (est c1929) Bekonscot.

Travelling north west of Beaconsfield brings us to High Wycombe where the RAF bomber command headquarters was based at Daws Hill. Now known as RAF High Wycombe, it's motto is 'Non Sibi' which means 'not for ourselves'. High Wycombe seems to have been swarming with bodgers and there were many furniture companies there , Ercol, E.Gomme ltd who created G-plan branded furniture and Parker Knoll to name a few. London Wasps, who are based at High Wycombe, were founded in 1897.

Sixteen miles north north west as the crow flies from High Wycombe, brings us to the Schatzkammer of a liberal MP called Ferdinand James Anselm Freiherr Von Rothschild (b c1839 and possibly part of that red shield mob out of Frankfurt who like to create money from thin air and lend it to people with a very large viggorish (you could well ask 'why is no one else, apart from a select few banksters, allowed to do this?'). The baron liked collecting stuff and he kept his vast hoard in a mansion called Waddesdon manor.