Milling
Although people have been grinding grain in Britain since the Bronze Age, some jobs like milling (grinding grain to make flour) didn't exist in Britain until the Romans arrived in AD 43. Milling was important to the Romans because they relied on flour to make bread and other foods.
What was milling like in Roman Britain?
Millers worked hard to grind grain to make flour. They worked with heavy millstones or quernstones. Some worked in watermills, which might have used the water from rivers like the Darent to power their millstones. Archaeologists believe there might have been a watermill at Eynsford and possibly at Lullingstone too.
There were other ways of powering mills too. Quern stones found in the outdoor kitchen area at Lullingstone are large enough to have been powered by two oxen. Quernstones found in the area also suggest that some people continued to grind their own grain by hand, even when there was a mill nearby.
Where did milling happen?
It's possible that milling took place at Darenth Villa, Lullingstone Roman Villa and Eynsford given the evidence that has been found (millstones and quernstones).
Millstones are larger stones used to grind lots of grain at once. Quernstones are usually smaller hand mills. It's sometimes difficult to identify millstones. This is because some were later reworked into quernstones.
Activity Idea
SCIENCE and DESIGN TECHNOLOGY
Find out more about some of the grains grown and eaten by the Romans in Britain (like wheat, barley and oats). Think about their characteristics and how these have helped the crops to survive. What kinds of foods could the Romans make using these grains?
You could try making your own Roman-inspired foods using the grains you've researched.