Flitch of bacon custom a succession of women in an attempt to find the right one. The description of the ceremony in the book is partly based on the art of David Ogborne, an eyewitness to the last ceremony in 1751. "The Flitch of Bacon" public house, of which the protagonist of Ainsworth's novel is the publican, still exists in Little Dunmow. "The Flitch of Bacon" is a comic opera from 1779 by William Shield and Sir Henry Bate Dudley. "Made in Heaven" is a 1952 film starring David Tomlinson and Petula Clark about a married couple attempting to win the Dunmow flitch. "Dunmow
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