This article appeared in the Newsletter 1st January 2026.

CLEANING THE STONES.

With the mill not operating over Christmas we take the opportunity to strip the mill stone apparatus down and give it all a good clean and check them over for any problems that may affect milling in the future.

To get to the millstones themselves requires all the stone furniture to be removed from above them.

A DIAGRAM SHOWING THE VARIOUS PARTS OF THE STONE FURNITURE.

First the hopper is lifted off the horse, not quite as straight forward a job as it sounds, because the shoot that brings the grain down from granary floor is lower than the top of the hooper. So it requires a bit of lifting and then tilting to get it out.

Once the hopper is removed it is easier to untie the crook string from the shoe that can then be lifted out.  The horse is then lifted off the tun.

The tun then has to be lifted off the stones. This is a two person job, there are four handles on each tun and it is a matter of lifting it up so that it is above the top of the stones. Because  of the restricted room within the mill it is not possible to lift the tun over the stones and stand it on the floor in its normal position. It has to be put on its side. If that wasn’t enough, for those of you who have been in the mill will know there are two wooden pillars one next to each of the set of stones we use supporting the granary floor. So the person on that side of the tun has to also negotiate these pillars. either long arms or a tight squeeze.

THE STONES EXPOSED FOR CLEANING. NOTE THE PILLAR THAT HAS TO BE NEGOTIATED.

THE TUN REMOVED AND TURNED ON EDGE READY FOR CLEANING.

Once all the furniture is removed the cleaning begins, the outside of the stones are swept and hoovered and checked for any abnormal wear. The sweep on the top stone that pushes the ground meal around the inside of the tun to the shoot is checked. If we are not lifting the runner stone (see next weeks instalment for that) the eye of the stones (the hole in the centre of the runner stone down which the grain falls to be ground) is hoovered out. The inside of the tun is cleaned and the aluminium lining checked for damage. All the other  pieces of furniture are also cleaned and checked over. Finally we use a long brush and sweep out the spout taking the ground meal to the sacks on the lower floor.

Then you put it all back together, ensuring the tun is centred over the stones.  As we use two sets of stones on a regular basis we then repeat the operation on the other set.

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