100 years ago in COUNTRY LIFE

July 14, 1917

LOVERS of what is old will not be able to avoid a regret more or less sentimental that the most ancient of rural industries has been brought to what appears to be a definite end. Flint-knapping has ceased to be a pursuit at Brandon. After hostilities commenced there was an extraordinary boom in the industry, because soldiers in the trenches during the fearfully wet summer and autumn of 1914 could not use matches and were glad to revert to flint and steel. But invention put an end to that. Someone discovered that a very tiny morsel of flint with an automatic apparatus could be cheaply manufactured and was far superior. So once more the knapper was thrown on his resources, and it appears now that his vocation has gone altogether.