Description:Flints were first burned in the calcining kiln on site, mixed with limestone and then ground with water in this pan. The fluid was drained off into the washing tank behind and agitated, then poured into settling tanks below. The solution was then dried and supplied as a ‘cake’ to the potters who added it to the slip, making it whiter and stronger. Photographed around 1970.
Mosty Lea Mill was probably in existence before 1716, when Stephen Townsend, a Stafford dyer, purchased the site for use as a fulling mill.
In 1756, John and Ralph Baddeley acquired it and rebuilt parts in order to grind flint for the pottery industry. The mill finally ceased production in 1962.
Today, Mosty Lea is the only remaining one of the Moddershall Valley mills where all the processes involved in grinding can still be seen, together with its water wheel, gears, pit wheel and grinding pan.