Crossing the bridge: Notes on development of the rynd

Anderson, T.J., Alonso, N. (eds), Tilting at Mills: The Archaeology and Geology of Mills and Milling. Revista d’Arqueologia de Ponent. Número Extra 4, 2019. ISBN: 9788491440291 The mill rynd or bridge is probably the most important fitting in a corn mill: it carries the upper millstone on the head of the spindle and enables it to be turned by the machinery of the mill. Although it is therefore an essential component of milling technology, its development has received little attention or analysis. This paper considers the development of the rynd from the earliest power-driven millstones in the Roman period through to the introduction of sophisticated forms in the late 18th and early-mid 19th centuries. This development is witnessed not only in the physical survival of mill rynds themselves but also in the negative information found in the shapes of the recesses which were cut in the faces of millstones to locate them. A range of sources, including depictions of rynds in medieval wall paintings and their use as heraldic charges, is also explored.