Flint Picking and Milling

Flint, when ground to a granular or powder form, was an important ingredient to the pottery recipe. Although this image is of flint gathering from a beach in Normandy, the same scene likely occurred in the southern England flint locales. Obviously backbreaking work for both humans and horses. In England, the flint was shipped by barge, ship or road to the Potteries in Staffordshire, where it was ground in mills such as the one at Cheddleton which we visited during our 2003 England meeting.