Any idea what this is? *PIC*

[Anonymous]

I found this stone in my garden. It was about 4 ft long and 3 inches thick but has broken into 4 pieces.
The house is a small Cheshire farm house from around 1770.
Any ideas?

 

[Anonymous]

Base for a cheese press?

 

[Anonymous]

Yes it seems to be a part of some kind of press and Worms is probably right thinking it is cheese. The circle could be there to position a former - or is it for drainage?

Bryan

 

[Anonymous]

Yes I think your right.

I recently did some survey work in an old cheese factory that had a small museum and im sure they had something very similar!

PC

 

[Anonymous]

Did you come away with any samples?

Bryan

 

[Anonymous]

No, didn't even offer me a sample tasting!

PC

 

[Anonymous]

Thanks for the info. I Googled "cheese press" and came up with this:

Just need to find the rest of it now.

 

[Anonymous]

Well, well - it's many years since I last saw a Ceremonial Deflowering Stone.

Back in the days when aristocracy was a status that really meant something, the Lord of the Manor had first refusal (rarely refused!) on the brides of his serfs. Needless to say, this grew into something of a ceremonial event, with a tradition of placing the young lady on a mystically marked stone - intended to ensure that the gods of fertility would smile on the event. The evil baron would prepare for the ceremony by consuming the best part of a hogshead of mead, and would then blunder about stark naked, trying to find his target. Hence the nature of the mystic markings on the stone.
The sockets just held posts that were there to enable the inebriated baron to keep his balance during the proceedings.

It's a good thing I was here to set the record straight, otherwise you would have believed that cock and bull story about cheese.

 

[Anonymous]

I think someone else has been at the hogshead of mead...!

 

[Anonymous]

I regard that ash a foul shlur, shir, and I demand shatishfaction.

 

[Anonymous]

Certainly a cock story Penrose... although after quaffing so much mead performance may have declined a tad I fear. According to the e-mails I receive several times a day there is a cure however.

And Droit de whatsit is apparently bull too. A myth.

Yes - I agree - the base for a cheese press.

There's something similar pictured in my copy of 'Life in the Yorkshire Dales' - Wensleydale in that case.

Different cheese, same process!

 

[Anonymous]

No such thing as "droit de seigneur"?

In that case I shall stop giving loans to the Labour party to try and get a life peerage.