Where is it?
Grindleford
Hope Valley
Derbyshire
Huge numbers of abandoned millstones can be found at Bole Hill Quarry but they can
be found scattered all over the area.
Surprise View car park is on the A6187
The postcode is S32 1DA

A strange sight in the Peak District are the many hundreds of abandoned millstones, grindstones and crushing stones scattered around the area. Made for over 600 years production of these stones peaked in the late 16th and 17th centuries but in the mid 18th century this huge industry was in decline.  A desire for white bread saw the sharp decline in demand for the grey millstones as they were replaced by French whitestone imports.

This was not the peaceful wooded area you see now it was once an area of intense industry.  The trees grew once the quarrying was abandoned.

The gritstone was carefully extracted by skilled quarrymen to be fashioned by hand into the huge stone circles.  Highly prized the stone was removed from the natural joints in the rock face. At Bole Hill Quarry there are piles of many hundreds of crushing stones, destined for crushing wood pulp for paper in Scandinavia.  In the 1930’s this industry also collapsed and the stones were simply abandoned alongside what was the railway built to transport the rock.

Many of the stones are perfect but in some you can see imperfections and stones that have broken in half which has led to them remaining unfinished.

There are many other things to find in and around the woods here.  Remains of the gunpowder store and the old winding drum that used a counterweight system to haul the empty trucks back up the steep hill using the heavy millstone filled trucks as they travelled down the hill.  And lovely Padley Gorge with it tumbling waterfalls and wildlife.  There’s even an abandoned ice house!!