Lockdown 3 - Photography day 1: flint

Another wet day here so an inside more uplifting photo. 

Living on land that we know was inhabited from Anglo Saxon times and probably earlier makes digging the garden more fun. The village has benefitted from a quite extensive archeological study over several years. My normal digging doesn’t go that deep, although some of the invasive nettle roots do! We are on clay with lots of chalk and flint. One of my most interesting finds form Lockdown 1 digging was this hand sized piece of flint. 

Discussing it with the eldest grandson we thought it might be ‘an apprentice piece’ for an axe. The edges look as if they have been worked. 

We discussed whether it was made by a young flint maker, just a teenager - like my  grandson. Thoughts came on to safety. The grandson has done a bit of flint napping wearing safety glasses. Was it done with the eyes closed when this flint was made we wondered? 

The Brecks, a very special area in  the west of Norfolk/Suffolk are well known for Grimes Graves, the only Neolithic Flint Mines open to visitors in Britain. (English Heritage site). On arrival at what is also a Site of Special Scientific Interest due to being a habitat for rare flora  and fauna, one sees a lunar like landscape of over 400 pits. One can imagine it being like that 5000 years  ago when the flint was first mined there. One shaft is open so you can descend 30 ft down a vertical ladder (if you are over 10 and are wearing sensible shoes and are not too scared by this!) Once down you can see the jet black flint and tunnels the early miners crawled through. Believe me the climbing up is easier, if you don’t look down! It is so special, that it ought to be on everyone’s bucket list. But perhaps I am biased, it was  one of a very few school visits I was taken on in my first year at Grammar School in Thetford and I was terrified. The ladder is better now I am told. 

 

Hearing an expert talk about flint I hadn’t ever thought about the fact that flints became throwaway items in those days. Once blunt you just made another! Flint can be incredibly sharp. 

If you decide to visit the Brecks sometime, do look up other places to experience flint before the visit. Both Brandon and Thetford  Museums have displays and Brandon has its own flint mines. Brandon being the centre of  the flintlock industry for over a century.