Tuesday 4 April 2023

Flint


Building with Flint is common in several areas of the UK. It's a very attractive material, and extremely hard-wearing.

Our church is built entirely of Flint, with the addition of stone openings, corner stones, etc.

The style of building with Flint varies according to taste, and possibly cost. Some styles are certainly more attractive than others.


For a high-status building such as this, and probably with cost not a problem (ahem), they have chosen 'Knapped Flint', which takes longer to work, and looks wonderful.

The builders take Potato sized Flints stones, whack them in the middle to create two halved flat surfaces, and build with the flat surfaces pointing outwards.  Hidden from view is the rounded sides of the Flints. They are pieced together like a veritable Jig-Saw puzzle.


Any fool can build with whole, and randomly sized, Flints; but to build like the above takes a real craftsman. 

Every time I walk past I admire their work. It's beautiful.

 

16 comments:

  1. That's a lot of flint. It does look nice though.

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    1. The whole overall impression is wonderful.

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  2. It gives a marvellous effect but must be terribly difficult to do. I wonder if there are still craftsmen around who knows this technique.

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    1. Yes, there are still plenty of builders around who use Flint. It's more time-consuming than difficult. They do need a certain sense of aesthetics, but after that it's just hard slog!

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  3. Seaside Pebble houses we used to call them as children.

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    1. 'Seaside Pebble Manor'; sounds good to me.

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  4. A builder friend of ours who specialized in work on older houses, reckons that matching old flint work is like building with a truckload of tennis balls. I would imagine tennis balls being regular would have been easier.

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    1. Some poor person would also have had the job of finding all those similar sized stones. The whole process was hardly easy.

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  5. Flint is used a lot in Norfolk I believe - it is so attractive - I didn't know about the flat surface - I shall look out for it in future.

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    1. I expect there are other areas too. It's a lovely material.

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  6. You could take up stone laying as a hobby

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    1. I have made patterned concrete slabs, but with much smaller pebbles.

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  7. That is a lovely wall of Flint stone work. What is the (white) material that holds the stones in place? Cutting each stone in half and then placing each one in a pattern takes some expertise.

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    1. The white material would be a chalk-rich mortar that 'glues' it all together. I have picked at it, and it's very hard.

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  8. Regional differences in building techniques seem to be disappearing and to me that's regrettable. It's nice to see flint cottages and churches. Like Pat The Weaver said, there is much evidence of flint work in Norfolk and also in some villages in The Yorkshire Wolds.

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    1. I imagine wherever Flints appear, they would be used as a building material. Very nice too.

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