Sussex Diamonds

 In my part of Sussex we're on heavy Wealden clay with woods around us and this is reflected in the brick and timber buildings you see. However, as you travel further into the South Downs there is a noticeable change in building style with many flint covered buildings appearing. Since Neolithic times people have mined the hills for the flint nodules. Cissbury Hill Fort has many scars of the workings which can still be seen as depressions in the surface. It seems a little puzzling that they went to such trouble to retrieve the flint when the surrounding area is littered with flint nodules, but the good quality ones which would withstand being made into tools were at the greater depth and getting them may well have been seen as a rite of passage for the transition from boys into men.

Up until very recently I had never given much thought to how the material is used and the different styles. This is a rather pleasing decorative chequerboard effect on the front of the Marlipins museum in Shoreham.

There are also different terms for the pieces of flint are treated. Sometimes they are square knapped which is the most labour intensive and others are only roughly knapped. You have walls which have them in straight lines sometimes combined with bricks to add contrast whilst some aim for uniformly shaped stones and others use random sizes. The one below is where flint chips are inserted into the mortar and is called galleting [or garreting] yet others know them as witches' eyes.

These ones are just known as cobbles for obvious reasons [I'll write a post about where we saw them last weekend in a separate post], but my favourite and very Sussex expression is 'snail-creep work' for those buildings where the walls have the shiny knapped flint all facing outwards. I am guessing it gets its name from the shiny trail snails leave behind them.

Down-land flint has been regarded as a precious commodity for many thousands of years and hence its other name of "Sussex Diamonds". I, for one, didn't know that there was quite so many interesting snippets to know about what I formerly thought to be rather a dry topic!

Arilx