14th January 2008, 01:20 PM
Its the base from a farm cheese press. A wooden or metal cylinder would have stood on top of the cross, the two square holes are for uprights to upport a heavy weight and a crossbar with a screw to press it down - pressed the whey out of the curd cheese and the grooves helped it to drain away. the stone weights arefairly common on Lancashire farms and a few presees survive (there is one outside the Dewlay chees factory on the A6 near Garstang.