Millstones
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The two working mill stones are of Derbyshire millstone grit which is a hard form of sandstone with quartz particles embedded in it. In the middle of the stone is a damsel which vibrates the shoe, helping the corn to find its way to the eye of the stone Some stones are made of French Burr stone which is a limestone found to the south of Paris. French stones are composite - made of smaller pieces bound together by an iron hoop and cemented on the top. |
The stones had to be dressed every three weeks. This meant turning over the grinding faces and sharpening the edges of the grooves. The grooves are called the furrows and the raised parts are called the lands. Mills like Sarehole would have enough stones to keep producing flour while one stone at a time was out of action being dressed.
By the end of the nineteenth century, stone grinding was giving way to roller grinding by massive, steam driven mills. This was done at the ports like Bristol and London where the corn was imported. One of the first steam driven mills was the Albion Mill in London which was powered by a Boulton and Watt rotary steam engine built at the Soho works at Soho in Birmingham
The spread of the railways in Great Britain and North America allowed cheap corn to be distributed all over the country causing mills like Sarehole to turn to bone grinding to make a living. Animal bones were powdered into fertilizer by the old mill stones and sold to local farmers to spread on their soil.