Component
Millstone
Picture to come.
One of a pair of heavy stone discs used to grind grain: the lower stone stayed fixed while the upper was turned by a watermill, or, from the late twelfth century, a windmill. The grinding faces were cut with grooves. Imported Rhineland lava had long been used for querns and millstones; the famous Derbyshire gritstone millstones are first recorded in the thirteenth century, and French burr stones came later still.
Caveats (confidence: medium)
The sources of millstones used in 12th-century England are not well documented; the late-12th-century date for the first English windmills is from general knowledge, not checked here.
Sources: peakdistrict.gov.uk
Made by
- Cut a millstone
Used to build
- Watermill
- Powder mill