High on the Derbyshire Moors, in all weathers, groups of men several centuries ago, this place was once a very busy workshop. The natural rock lent itself to being worked by hammer and chisel with much skill by ‘stone masons’. Mill Stones for grinding grains and minerals were perhaps the biggest volume of product produced. But larger items such as water troughs were also carved from this gritstone.
But look closely at the part finished trough above. The outer has been carved from a large boulder and the painstaking work of cutting out the middle bit by bit had started. But then on the right side of the stone a spit appears….so all that skill and hard work is lost, abandoned. It was hard work, hard work in a tough environment and even tougher when you had to walk away from a task uncompleted and no doubt forfeit any claim to payment for all that effort. Even if it had been completed, like many hundreds were, that work was not fully complete as the trough would need to be transported to the purchaser – no easy task, no cranes, no motor transport or tractor to ease the burden, just brute strength, wooden leavers and a horse and cart or two.
1st June
© David Oakes 2014
DAVID OAKES - IMAGES. 