28/04/2024
Last week I stayed with a friend in Norfolk and took a walk around the village of Harleston. Lovely little village, but the church is quite something. It is a lovely example of an English flint church, quite typical throughout East Anglia.
As was often the case, the frontage of the church was where the most Impressive flint work was 'shown off'. In this case the flints were knapped square and fitted into the mortar just a few millimetres apart. This is known a 'flush-work', and as you can see from the images, it produces a beautiful finish.
The sides and rear or the church display only split cobbles of flint set into the mortar. This was the cheaper option, for the walls less visible from the main road. Still an attractive finish, but requiring less skill to produce. A nice 'finishing touch' was the addition of flush-work detail on the buttresses along the sides.
Many of the squared flints throughout this region, were produced (though not exclusively) by gunflint knappers. Blades would be removed from the core, to then be reduced to gunflints. The remainder of the core would then be squared or rounded off and supplied to the building industry. This practice enabled the gunflint industry to supply a second industry, and miximise the use of raw flint. Rather than discard the spent blade cores, they were shaped and sold. Clever stuff!
Hope you like the images, though they don't do the craftsmanship justice.
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