Author: Tacco Van Geertruyen
I am an archaeology student at the university of Ghent (in Belgium) and I’m a bit stuck on the situation of the first rotating hand mills in England
I specialise in industrial archaeology and am now working on my thesis. The subject I’m working on is millstones throughout the centuries. At this point I just finished the part about the Iron Age but I’m a bit stuck on the situation of the first rotating hand mills in England. According to my research the rotating hand mills were first developed around the late 6th century BC in North-East Spain. From there this principle spread to the Mediterranean sea the North of Europe. By the 2nd century BC the were more or less common in most parts of Western Europe. However, according to Martin Watts in ‘the archaeology of mills and milling’ (2002) the first known rotating millstone appeared in England around the 5th century BC in Danebury. An other author, David Peacock, mentions around the same period (or a bit later) a stone quarry in Lodsworth, West-Sussex (article from 1987) where hand mills were produced. This is, in comparison to the rest of Europe an very early introduction of the rotating hand mill and non of the articles I found mentions anything about how and from where exactly these hand mills were introduced in England. Does anyone know if there is any information on this subject available or someone who might be able to help me with my question?