Alan,
Your spot on with "the learning process"
It seems like it has been "Mill Month" for me and I have been learning too, sorry to all the M-H readers who will frown at me currently diversifying from our passionate make.
Recently I went to a well known "Steam family Collection" auction, being local and only ten miles away I went mid day just to see one or two items which interested me, some of you know of my passion for "Foster's of Lincoln" well known for building the first military tank and threshing machinery, the 1924 machine which my grandfather had still stands in my shed.
Well at this sale was the only known surviving Foster Stone grinding mill, I knew it had been there for many years and wanted to see it before being sold out of the County, weighing over five tons it was a beautiful rare piece of Lincoln history with large horizontal stones and substantial ornate cast iron frame to carry the weight.
Talking to a very knowledgeable "mill collector" he told me these early 1800's British mills were put out of work grinding flour for food production when an act was passed for flour not being ground by our British "grit stones" apparently they were known for small stone particles breaking off an ending up in the flour.
Then I notice on the Jeffrey and Blackstone mill last weekend they were proud to cast into the end of their mill of late 1800's "Fitted with 30 inch French Stones" so guess they were made from a different kind of stone to the British ones.
Malcolm
Malcolm