Remarkable old film on flint mining .  Large nodules of flint are extracted from under chalk and stacked into heaps or jags . With great hammer skill the nodules are split  and broken down to make flints for pistols of various types  which are shown being packed for export  in sacks packed in casks

 Use of a flint demonstrated  and tinder boxes . With the decline of demand for gun flints a new trade sprang up making  flint faced blocks for construction work. Date and location of film is unknown but it appears to be English and in the 1930s.

 While there may still be a very limited demand for flints for flintlock pistols this must be a  craft that has disappeared. Judging by the work rate style of working and output this was no fancy demonstration put on for the tourists but several men working hard to make a commercial product as their daily work.  Opening titles missing from film so very few clues about the film.

Some of the techniques shown were probably many hundred years old.

 . 8 minutes Black and White.

 This is good example of a film that fills a gap in knowledge  and these two feedbacks confirm 

I have just received the flint-knapping video and I very pleased with it indeed. I am a flint knapper and archaeologist and I have a special interest in the gun-flint industry, so I can provide some additional information on the film.

The film is of Brandon, Suffolk and the quarry is on Lingheath. The minor is a Mr Ashley and the man unloading the cart and first seen quartering is a Mr Edwards. The older man shown flaking is Fred Snare - the boss! I don't know who the other two knappers in the workshop are, but I could find out with some additional research. In terms I date, I suspect this film was made in the early 1930s. An article and photos of these knappers was published in 'Antiquity' March 1935 by Rainbird Clarke and they look a little older. Interestingly the format of this article is similar to the film. This is an exceptional record of an extinct industry and I am very pleased you have saved it.

Regards,

Dr Hugo Lamdin-Whymark

Just to follow up on my e-mail yesterday, as I have done some additional research.

The film is of one of the last gun-flint workshops at Brandon, Suffolk and the quarry is on Lingheath. The miner is Arthur ‘Pony’ Ashley (1863-1946), who continued mining and moving all of the flint by hand until he retired just before the second world war.  The man unloading the cart and first seen quartering is a Mr V.R. (Vic) Edwards (1888-1953) and the older man shown flaking is Frederick E ‘Fred’ Snare 1858-1934.  Snare ran the workshop until his death, at which point Vic Edwards took over the business.  The man in the background of the panning shot in workshop is a Mr H. Field.  I don’t know the identity of the younger man making the gun flints, but he could be one of the Edwards brothers who continued the business in the latter half of the 20^th century.  There were only seven remaining flint knappers in 1924, but by 1935 it is recorded that this figure had shrunk to 1 in continuous employment and 2 in part-time employment.  Fortunes briefly picked up after the second world war but the business was in terminal decline by the 1960s and the last gun-flint knapper – Fred Avery – died in 1996.   

This film must pre-date the death of Fred Snare in 1934, and there was great interest in the gunflint industry in the late 1920s and early 1930s, so I suspect it dates from that period.  Numerous photographs of these knappers at work have been printed over the years, but I have never heard of a film surviving.  You may also be interested to know that many flints produced by the men in this film are in museums up and down the country, including the Pitt Rivers Museum (PRM), Oxford.  I was speaking to one of the PRM researchers yesterday and they were exceptionally excited to hear of this films existence as successive curators took an interest in this industry from the 1860s onwards and many learned the art of flint knapping from these men.  Indeed, I have just found a 1937 article on gun-flint knapping by two PRM curators, Sir Francis Knowles and Alfred Barnes, which talks of their discussions with Vic Edwards.  This film is certainly a very exciting discovery and I suspect several museums may be interested in obtaining a copy when word gets around. 

Regards,Hugo

 Hi Pal5047, this sounds fascinating. I'm an archaeologist who specialises in Neolithic flintmining and am very interested in the Brandon gun-flinters, who were mining the same seam of flint as at Grime's Graves.