British gritstone was used for millstones to mill flour, to grind wood into pulp for paper and for grindstones to sharpen blades.
The old type of cider mill still exists in remote parts of the country. It consists of a circular trough, hewn out of solid stone, in the deep groove of which one or two stone rollers run around. The rollers are sometimes propelled by a horse yoked directly to them, but in the South-Western counties the horse-gear is outside the pound and the motive power transmitted by a shaft and gear wheels. Most of the latter are of wood including the teeth, which can be renewed when worn. A more modern type of mill is fitted with "tumblers" or "breakers", two deeply ribbed rollers which revolve in opposite directions, break up the fruit, and the latter then passes downwards between two other rollers of hard stone.
I've seen them before... but can't for the life of me remember where...
these are cider making rollers...
Stallioni. Frankly I'm disappointed... I was expecting some sort of 'it's Satans butt plug' type comments not a serious, credible answer
Check out what I found embedded in a local stream bed in the woods behind my house in Meersbrook. What I initially thought to be a car wheel turned out to be a 40Kg Gritstone lump carved with a No of grooves. My guess is some sort of pulley. Anyone have any ideas or other knowledge. never seen anything like it. God knows how it ended up embedded in 3 foot of clay at the bottom of a stream.
Dorset, that's where I've seen them
