h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

The tiny hamlet of Flash in the Peak District near where the county boundaries of Cheshire,Derbyshire and Staffordshire converge was reputedly the base for tinkers making and selling buttons covered with silk. As silk weaving, originally using hand looms, became focused on and around nearby Macclesfield, off-cuts and scrap from which small pieces for use in buttons were readily available, as were impoverished families scratching a living on hill farms to serve as homeworkers. The use of the word "flash" to denote gaudiness and its association with a "Del-boy" style of patter salesmanship is thought to stem from the intinerant "Flashmen" who carried out this trade.

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