Monday 25 October 2021

Flint Walling.


I love Flint walls.

In her fascinating 1936 book 'Sussex Cottage', Esther Meynell briefly talks of her love for Flint walls. Having been brought-up in Sussex, they had always been something I'd taken for granted, but she made me look again at them in a new light. 

Unfortunately the book is in France, so I cannot refer to it. 'The net' is woefully short of all the intriguing names I was looking for. However, here are a few favourites that I do remember.

This very regular form of round Flint work, above, is called 'Potato Plant' (for obvious reasons). The rows of Flints are separated by a line of pointing, and the whole job looks extremely smart. It's a shame that this nearby example has been painted. 

A method reserved for high status buildings, churches, etc, is this 'Square knapped' work. You can imagine the hours of work involved 'knapping' every Flint to the same size; an art in itself. The Flints are then laid almost like bricks; a very beautiful technique.

And finally, possibly the most common method of building with Flint is known as 'Snail Creep', where halved flints are arranged in an almost haphazard way, leaving a very pleasant looking textured wall, bordered by either stone or brick.

Flint walling is not exclusively found in Sussex, examples can be found throughout East Anglia; especially in Norfolk; in fact wherever Flint is found. These three examples are from within a few metres of our own 'Flintless' home.


18 comments:

  1. A builder friend of ours who specialized in work on old home restorations reckons building with flint is like trying to create a house out of a truckload of tennis balls!

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    1. Sounds about right. Trying to get them to stick must be a nightmare.

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  2. Interesting constructions there. I often marvel at how intricate many older buildings are and at the time and effort put into them. How much sturdier they are than new buildings which are often ugly and cannot withstand the ravages of time.

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    1. Can you imagine anyone in 100 years time saying "We're going to strip it back to the original concrete blocks"? No thanks.

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  3. It is funny that when you were in France things you wanted were always in the loft in Brighton and now as soon as you are in Brighton a book you want is in France! Such is life living in more than one house I suppose.

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    1. I quite expect that that will be replicated many times over. The loft is revealing many things; very exciting.

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  4. Ours is made of number three, very random!

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    1. Now you will be able to impress your friends by telling them it's 'Snail Creep'; but maybe you knew that already.

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  5. I think flint is very hard. Snail Creep seems like a forerunner of the 'marvellous' pebble dash.

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    1. Pebble dash is the miniature version!!! An insult to humanity.

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  6. I've never seen flint walls or if I have walked past them I was unaware of what they were. They are on my radar now. Are these walls seen throughout England or are they unique to certain areas?

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    1. They are mostly found in Sussex, but also in East Anglia. On a different subject, it's a lovely sunny afternoon here and I've just found a young Fox relaxing on our front doorstep!

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  7. Baconsthorpe Castle in Norfolk ia galleted knapped flint and opalescent - quite stunning.

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    1. Norfolk has wonderful examples. It's a highly superior building material.

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  8. I love indigenous building materials- stone here of course - but that flint is delightful.

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    1. Yorkshire has some wonderful stonework; both domestic and agricultural.

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  9. The third photo reminds me of cottages in Broadstairs

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    1. I think most of the South East uses Flint for walling. Mostly Sussex, but you find it all over the region.

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