Millstone images - Cylindrical millstones                 Home           Millstone page


 Stanage Edge - a group of much photographed millstones above Overstones Farm. These are a classic 19th century cylindrical form, with flat faces and large eyes.  Likely to have been quarried by levering blocks from the Edge and formed by masons working for a quarry owner.


A group of stones of varying sizes at the other end of Stanage below High Neb. The smallest stones might have been intended as grind stones. Likely to date from the mid 19th century. Why were they left? no one knows, perhaps a cancelled order, perhaps a mason building stock in the hope orders would come. Demand for millstones fell rapidly when iron roller milling transformed flour production in the last 20 years of the 19th century.




Grit millstones at Caudwell's Mill, Rowsley. These have been dressed with the standard English groove pattern, designed to feed grain out from the eye and then progessively break grains open.


An unusual stone at Burbage: a "Spanish Cross" has been cut at the quarry. These were normally cut in runner stones to house mechanisms that kept the stone level.  Most mills used rhynds (supports for the runner) that were much smaller than this.  A further odd feature is a slight bevel around the edge.  Perhaps intended for a use other than milling grain.










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