As furniture company William Bartlett prepares to sweep up the sawdust from the factory floor for the very last time, does a map detailing the history of the trade reveal how the writing may have always been on the wall?

Bartlett's managing director speaks to Nic Brunetti about the end of a golden era in furniture making.

On the stairway in the reception area at William Bartlett is a display of maps and pictures, arranged on a board for customers and visitors to cast their gaze over.

It documents the history of the furniture company which dates back to 1864. There is a poster, a photo of Victorian factory workers, and one item in particular that catches your eye more than the others.

It is a map. But not just any map. It is a map highlighting the founding father companies of the furniture industry in High Wycombe, with the title "The Furniture Town".

The map is believed to date back to the 1930s when High Wycombe was known throughout the world for its furniture trade.

It shows factories scattered across London Road, Desborough Road, and Abercromby Avenue. There are 37 in total, but that only tells part of the story. The map only lists the firms who were members of the Furniture Manufacturers Foundation. The real figure was somewhere in the region of 150, as High Wycombe became the biggest producer of chairs in the country.

It comes as no surprise then that the map is slightly out of date that era has well and truly gone.

Just this week Bartlett's, in Grafton Street, laid off further members of staff before its eventual closure in June.

The company did not fold as many others have, but realised that, as profits declined and running costs increased, they were simply flogging a dead horse.

Jerome Bartlett, the managing director, who is one of the fifth generation of the family, said the change in fortunes was simply impossible to overlook.

"Shaking someone's hand every week for the last 12 weeks ... it really does affect you," said Mr Bartlett, when quizzed about the redundancies.

"Some of the guys have been here a long time. It has been a family business and generally people were able to look at William Bartlett and say they had a secure job here.

"But there is no such thing in this day and age. People enjoyed working here. There has been a camaraderie you don't get in many places these days."

Now only a handful of those listed on the map are around today.

These include Joynson Holland, Ercol, now in Princes Risborough, William Hands & Son, now known as Hands of Wycombe, Frank Hudson and until June, William Bartlett.

"I think going back 20 or 30 years, the industry was much more involved with itself than it is now," said Mr Bartlett, 42.

"There used to be the High Wycombe annual dinner and a variety of things staged over the year.

"The dinner stopped ten to 15 years ago because there weren't enough members to make it a decent social event."

Five years ago Bartlett's had a workforce of 140 people, a year later that went down to 80, and now only ten remain.

As he gazes at the original copy of the map, Mr Bartlett says it represents more than just a past history. It represents a modern industrial struggle that even his father, William, who died in 1999, saw coming in its early stages.

"It highlights everything that is difficult about furniture manufacturing," said Mr Bartlett.

"But I don't think it is just manufacturing. You have here what has transpired over the last 20 to 30 years for really no other reason than market forces and the globalisation of the industry and the business cost.

"The bottom line is you can only cut costs so much before you begin to affect the service of the product you are offering to the consumer. You have to be able to offer something very different that resists the cost pressures."

Bartlett's has been sold to a company in Tottenham, who will be outsourcing the brand to Romania, where it will be produced.

Looking back to the High Wycombe "monopoly" in furniture trading, experts believe the strong position of the town was down to the availability of beech in Buckinghamshire woodland.

Now a new trend is emerging in which it is more productive to export the work to Eastern Europe, rather than face production costs in the UK.

Mr Bartlett said: "Now internationally you can bring a lorry load of furniture over from Eastern Europe or the Far East for a fraction of the cost that you make it here.

"We live in the South East so that is a higher cost of living. I suppose young people have different aspirations and furniture does not necessarily have an appeal, so you have less people coming into the industry."

For great, great grandpa William Bartlett, the original founder of the company, whose picture also sits in reception, it is the end of an era. But while his image and the map of furniture makers exist in the town, it is not difficult to foresee that their story will always be remembered.