Diagram of rotary quern showing how it was put together and used
This rotary quern is one of more than 100 stones recovered in the late 1800s during quarrying at the Iron Age hillfort on Hunsbury Hill, Northampton. Many others have been found at Middle to Late Iron Age settlements around the county and its introduction at around 200 BCE was the beginning of an industrial revolution. Its use increased the production of flour for daily bread needed to feed a growing population becoming more reliant on cereal crops.
In Britain, from 4,000 BCE, saddle querns or rubbing stones had been used to turn hard cereal grains into flour, a slow and labour-intensive process compared to the rotary quern. In a rotary quern grain was fed into the top and crushed between the rotating upper stone and stationary lower stone set in the floor of an Iron Age roundhouse.
Northamptonshire ironstone was too soft to grind cereal, so the stones used came from distant quarry and manufacturing sites, such as the Peak District. A new set could weigh up to 58 kg, making them expensive trade items. It has been suggested that querns may have been part of a woman’s dowry, marriage payment, when she married.
Number 19 of the objects selected for the A History of Northamptonshire in 100 Objects Exhibition 2025
Hunsbury Hillfort
Contributed by Andy Chapman, Northamptonshire Archaeological Society
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© Andy Chapman
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Peterborough Museum
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The Trustees of the British Museum
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NMAG
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NMAG