True Grit...

A beautiful autumnal day. I walked a variation of one of my favourite walks , from Hayfield taking in Mill Hill, Ashop Edge and Kinder Downfall.

As I was on my own, and keen to avoid human contact, It became a day for mooching. So I mooched around Cluther Rocks as a way down to Kinder Reservoir. I came across several Mill Stones carved from the local Gritstone.
This rocky area of grit stone that has been used since the Iron Age for the production of quern stones - production of these continued through to the 18th century, apparently.

A number of abandoned quern stones lie amidst the heather and some of these have been dated to the Iron Age and Romano-British period.

"It is more than probable that the inhabitants of the nearby Iron Age/Romano-British settlement at Tunstead produced the quern stones for their own use and for trade, with some being found at the Roman forts of Melandra and Brough and now housed at Buxton Museum"

I would like to have one of these in my garden, I think I will need a bigger Rucksack though.!!