Flitch of bacon custom had not actually seen one another for over a year since their marriage. As well as to married couples, a flitch of bacon was also given at Whichnoure to men in the religious profession one year and a day following their retirement. A rather better-known example of the awarding of a flitch of bacon to married couples occurred at Little Dunmow Priory in Essex. It is generally held to have been instituted by the family of Robert Fitzwalter in the 13th century. According to Rev. W. W. Skeat in his notes to the fourteenth-century "The Vision of William Concerning Piers
Flitch beam fire would not probably affect the iron until the wooden beams were badly burned.” With the advent of high-strength engineered lumber, the advantages of flitch-beams disappeared. For example, comparing the capacity of 2 beams spanning 18 feet: Additionally, use of this type of beam has greatly declined due to the high cost of labor. Engineered lumber can be cut to length and installed much like sawn lumber; the flitch requires shop fabrication and/or field bolting. This, coupled with a much increased self-weight of the beam (11.4 pounds (5.2 kg) for engineered wood vs. 25.2 pounds (11.4 kg) for a flitch