grindstone

1) A disc of stone of considerable thickness which revolves on an iron axle and is used for grinding, sharpening or polishing (OED).

1437 ‘a quarry of grynstanes’, Bowes

1464-5 60 grynstones, Hull

1510 of ylka gryndestonne, York

1541 my gryndinge stones … in Ledes, Skipton, Kighley and Heptonstall

1543 2 grynstons unge in yron, Ripley

1578-9 ‘two stones called grynding stones’, Ecclesfield

1622 2 grundill stones, 3 stone troughes, Cottingley. The cutlers’ grindstones were mostly water-powered, and the quality of the stone available in the Sheffield area is seen as one of the major reasons for the success there of the cutlery trade. In 1637, John Harrison considered the course grinding stones for knives and scithes to be a major local resource and they were probably in use by up to 500 master workmen by that time. The alternative word, grindlestone, is recorded from the thirteenth century, notably in the alliterative poem Sir Gawain and the Green Knight: As one vpon a gryndelston hade grounden a syţe. It was common in Yorkshire from the sixteenth century: 1534 a stone troughe, a gryndle ston, Liversedge

1583 for a gryndle-stone 2s 4d, York

1639 Item grinelstones, Swinsty. The places where grindstones were quarried or stored are commemorated in some minor place-names, e.g. Grindstone Hill, Grinding Stone Hole, Grinnel Stones

the cliffs at Whitby: 1544-5 lapidum vocatam gryndelstones in lez cliffes. The place-name Grindlestone Bank is on record in Ovenden from 1536.

spellings grinding stone grindlestone grunstone grundlestone
dates 1437 1464-1465 1510 1534 1536 1541 1543 1544-1545 1578-1579 1583 1622 1637 1639

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