In architecture, flushwork is decorative masonry work which combines on the same flat plane flint and ashlar stone. If the stone projects from a flat flint wall then the term is proudwork, as the stone stands "proud" rather than being "flush" with the wall.
Flushworked buildings belong to the Perpendicular style of English Gothic architecture. It is characteristic of the external walls of medieval buildings – most of the survivors being churches – in parts of Southern England and especially East Anglia.[1] Flushwork begins in the early 14th century, but the peak period was during the wool boom between about 1450 and the English Reformation of the 1520s, when church building virtually ceased and brick construction became more fashionable. The technique continued in occasional use, and saw a major revival in the 19th century, and is still sometimes used in a modern style today, as well as for the restoration or extension of older buildings.
- ^ Fewins, Clive (2005). The Church Explorer's Handbook. Norwich, Norfolk: Canterbury Press Norwich. p. 18. ISBN 1-85311-622-X.
In areas where good building stone was sparse and the stone had to be transported great distances it has often been used to great effect. This can be seen widely all over East Anglia, in the technique known as flushwork, the use of finely worked freestone in combination with knapped flint to create decorative patterns flush with the wall surface.