Flitch beam wooden beams, and have been largely supplanted by more recent technology. “Flitch” originally referred to a slab of bacon, which was cut into strips lengthwise. Similarly, a wooden beam was flitched by cutting it lengthwise; one half was then rotated 180 degrees both longitudinally and laterally to ensure that any defects were separated. In the 18 century, before the availability of steel beams, pine beams were flitched with hardwood such as oak. With the availability of affordable steel, flitch beams became a way to strengthen long-span wooden beams cost-effectively while taking up less space than solid wood. An 1883 article
Flitch of bacon custom Campbell, daughter of John Campbell, 4th Duke of Argyll and widow of Charles Bruce, 4th Earl of Elgin and 3rd Earl of Ailesbury but by this stage married to Hon. H. S. Conway), Walpole with tongue firmly in cheek berates her for not having come to Whichnoure to claim the flitch: "Are you not ashamed, Madam, never to have put in your claim? It is above a year and a day that you have been married, and I never once heard either of you mention a journey to Whichnoure." Describing the location and explaining why the flitch no longer gets