Flint was in great demand during the Neolithic as a raw material. Because of its hardness and special working properties it can be shaped into tools for cutting, piercing and scraping. Flint nodules can also be used as hammers, and of course sparks can be struck from it to light fires. Axes were needed for felling trees and working timber.

Usable flint does occur in surface deposits, in gravels and on beaches. However good quality raw material may be found in quantity by mining. The first flint mines in Britain date from the Neolithic period.

Seams of nodular and tabular flint are found in the southern chalklands, where the chalk is soft and relatively easy to dig away. The earliest mines are found in Sussex and were active from around 4000 BC. They were worked for about a thousand years and supplied much of the flint for the surrounding areas, though axes made from it were traded and exchanged and must have been particularly valued in areas away from the flint-bearing chalk. Later during the Neolithic mining at these sites tailed off, and extraction began at the enormous mine complex at Grimes Graves, Norfolk.