The Stones

The millstones are made from French Burr stone, a very hard type of flint-like stone quarried near Paris. The stone was brought over in sections in the late 19th Century and then bound together with metal bands by a firm in Liverpool. They weigh over a half ton each.

The inside surfaces of the stones are dressed - that is they have sets of grooves called the "lands" and "furrows" cut in them using a special pattern. These grind the grain and channel it from the centre - the "eye" - to the edges as milled flour.