Ok I have been walking many times in Derbyshire, and spotted these huge Mill Stones. Large 4 ft diameter wheel like stones with a 6inch hole in the middle. Around Fox House Surprise view there are loads.

What's the official score with these things.

How old are they?
Who made them?
What were they for?
How did they transport them?
Why is there some left out there?
How much do they weigh?

ASAIK they are left over from quarrying. The places you see them tend to be areas of millstone grit, and very close to old quarries, where they were dug out and carved before being transported to mills. They are VERY heavy which is one reason no-one ever hoiks them up and takes them home :lol:
They would have been left because they were faulty, or because demand dried up. Sort of a Monoliths Seconds and Reject Bin
Uses of millstones: for grinding of grain. Surely you knew that? :P

but why are loads of them still in situ? It's something I've often wondered, usually after tripping over them :)

Originally posted by "cosywolf"

Uses of millstones: for grinding of grain. Surely you knew that? :P

Yes but for all I know these things could have been the wheels of a Prehistoric Go Kart :D


Originally posted by "cosywolf"

ASAIK

What's this mean? I am pretty naive when it comes to all this webchat lingo :lol:

Originally posted by "spook1210"

but why are loads of them still in situ? It's something I've often wondered, usually after tripping over them :)

Read cosywolf's answer.


PS IMHO ASAIK should be AFAIK.

Originally posted by "maxt"



PS IMHO ASAIK should be AFAIK.

AFAIK = As Far As I'm Concerned (and I realise that it's a K and not a C)

Originally posted by "DaBouncer"



PS IMHO ASAIK should be AFAIK.

AFAIK = As Far As I'm Concerned (and I realise that it's a K and not a C)

K=Know

Originally posted by "maxt"



PS IMHO ASAIK should be AFAIK.

AFAIK = As Far As I'm Concerned (and I realise that it's a K and not a C)

K=Know
DOH :oops:

Oops - next time I'll read the whole post :oops:

Tut Tut.....You should be doing that anyway... :oops:

Originally posted by "mikey"

How old are they?
Who made them?
What were they for?
How did they transport them?
Why is there some left out there?
How much do they weigh?

My daughter thought they were created by cavemen. I advised her they are from a much more recent era. Try moving one, you'll need a crane.

M.

Not well up on history Internet owl but did,nt the cave men put Stonehenge up.
They did, nt use a crane either.

Told off twice in one post! :shock:

Originally posted by spook
but why are loads of them still in situ?


They have been there since the mid-eighteenth centruy, when the importation of French millstones ( which were thought to be superior ) spelled the end. But the industry did not die without a fight, for as local stones were replaced by foreign ones, workers attacked the mills and it was necessary to get the military in to restore order....

Geez 2 years and 3 months and someone respond to one of my posts.

http://www.amanita-photolibrary.co.uk/photo_library/windmills/millstones_hathersage_gb93_std.jpg

... but this what they were really made for! (http://adsthatrock.blogspot.com/2005/04/volvic-pole-dancer.html)

Originally posted by mikey
Geez 2 years and 3 months and someone respond to one of my posts.

Sorry it took so long, been busy..

Was trolling through the archives, saw this post and realised that I knew the answer.
Occasionally, when stuck for somewhere to go on my motorcycle I get out a book called:- "Curiosities of Derbyshire and the Peak District", it's very informative and recommended to get you somewhere that you wouldn't normally think of going....

Alan Tichmarsh mentioned those very millstones in his Natural History Of Britain program (I saw the entire series at the weekend).

They are there because the stone there is millstone grit, the smaller ones were made for Sheffield cuttlery sharpening and the realy big ones were for grinding flour.

I've only just found your resurrected thread too. Apparently the millstones were measured in Hands, a Hand in the case of the millstone industry being three and a quarter inches. To take stones made from Chatsworth Grit as an example, with an average thickness of 15 inches and a centre hole of 8 inches diameter, you get a range of stones from 14 hands diameter weighing approx 1.03 tons, to one of 20 hands weighing 2.13 tons.
No-one really knows how they were transported. Too heavy for packhorses, there's no evidence of sledges being used. When Daniel Defoe visited the Peak District he said he saw stones in pairs on an axle being pulled along, but historians doubt it. The only picture of stones being transported shows small cutlery grinding stones in a horse and cart, but how the big ones were moved is anyone's guess.:thumbsup:

From Historic Hallamshire by David Hey (Landmark Publishing Ltd) - ISBN 1 84306 049 3

'Abandoned millstones litter the countryside (Peak District) around the prominent gritstone edges that dominate the skyline east of the river Derwent, on or near the western borders of Hallamshire. They are found in profusion on the Chatsworth and Rivelin grits which form one of the middle layers of the Millstone Grit series..and they can be seen in ones or twos in many a small delph on the surrounding moors. (Some) protude from the undergrowth at odd angles or are sunk into the ground, cracked and therefore rejected at an early stage of manufacture. From time to time a stone had to be rejected almost as soon as the hewers had begun to fashion it out of the rocks.

The ones that look new are usually smaller and thicker than the older millstones and they have sharp, right-angled edges. The traditional stones used by the corn miller have a distinctive shape with a flat side for grinding, a convex top and narrow, rounded edges. They lie alone, wherever they have been cast aside after an edge has been damaged or a flaw had rendered them useless. Now they are often covered in moss or lichen and are partly hidden by vegetation. A survey has shown that these older stones commonly had a diameter of 60, 64-66, or 70 inches, but that they varied in size from as little as 30 to as much as 80 inches; the crown had a maximum depth of 14 inches and the rounded edges were from 6 to 9 inches thick. Most of these older stones are propped up on a smaller stone so as to allow the hewer to work the uppermost side with his tools and occasionally to inscribe it with his personal mark.'

Hope this has been of some interest!